By Erendy Torres |Staff Writer|
CSUSB celebrates its 50 year anniversary and what people, including myself, really want to know is: what are we doing in celebration of this milestone?
As I walk around campus, I notice that our anniversary isn’t really being talked about. There aren’t any major events that capture students’ attention.
Placing congratulatory paw decals on pavement is not enough.
Sure, it’s nice to see renovations and banners of achievement everywhere, but social events are what motivates students to get involved.
Students walk past these posters, banners, and decals everyday, but they are still ignorant to the fact that we have accomplished an important milestone.
The idea of creating CSUSB was born in 1960; however, it didn’t open its doors until 1965. The three-building campus welcomed roughly 290 students that year, as stated on the school’s official website.
The website also states that today, CSUSB welcomes more than 20,000 students a year onto its 443 acre facility.
Over five decades, CSUSB has achieved important milestones like being named one of the best universities in the West by The Princeton Review and ranked the second safest CSU campus statewide according to StateUniversity.com.
But these are only minor facts about our campus.
As a newly transferred student from Mt. San Jacinto Community College, I ask myself a few questions as I try to get involved with the CSUSB community.
In celebration of our big 50 are we simply hosting lavish parties and other types of extravagant festivities? Or are we also expanding our campus in order to provide more entertainment, living and educational opportunities as well?
Fall 2015 is my first quarter attending CSUSB, so I don’t expect some major changes to occur around campus so soon.
However, as a suggestion, it’d be nice to honor our anniversary by deducting parking fees.
I asked around campus for more ideas. I mainly spoke to students and staff who have been here for more than two years. I also questioned them about recent changes they have seen around campus.
“The physical changes that I have seen around campus are the statues of the three former CSUSB presidents and the renovations around the Santos Manuel Student Union,” said Kameron Thomas, CSUSB lead student of the Cross Cultural Center.
“Simple changes like replacing the carpet and repainting the walls, has attracted more students into SMSU,” added Thomas.
“Architecturally speaking, I have seen many changes in food courts. The Commons has been revamped and we have more food varieties,” said Kappa Sigma member, Richard Flores.
Once again, students see the physical changes around campus, but that is about it.“I come to school three days out of the week and I haven’t seen any announcements on events in honor of our anniversary. The atmosphere is not lively enough for a celebration,” declared student, Adriana Ceja.
Some might argue that we don’t need to celebrate—that it isn’t a big deal—but others actually wonder what is going to happen.
We are not being well informed if there will be any future festivities and the few details we have received are not strongly promoted.
Even though the campus has created many modifications and hosted small events to commemorate the anniversary, there are more things that could be done.
We should find enough pride and time to honor the work of those who dedicated their entire lives to the success of CSUSB 50 years ago.
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