New England HERC

Mission Statement

Learning is preeminent at California State University, Fullerton. We aspire to combine the best qualities of teaching and research universities where actively engaged students, faculty and staff work in close collaboration to expand knowledge.

Our affordable undergraduate and graduate programs provide students the best of current practice, theory and research and integrate professional studies with preparation in the arts and sciences. Through experiences in and out of the classroom, students develop the habit of intellectual inquiry, prepare for challenging professions, strengthen relationships to their communities and contribute productively to society.

We are a comprehensive, regional university with a global outlook, located in Orange County, a technologically rich and culturally vibrant area of metropolitan Los Angeles. Our expertise and diversity serve as a distinctive resource and catalyst for partnerships with public and private organizations. We strive to be a center of activity essential to the intellectual, cultural and economic development of our region.

Goals

• To ensure the preeminence of learning
• To provide high-quality programs that meet the evolving needs of our students, community and region
• To enhance scholarly and creative activity
• To make collaboration integral to our activities
• To create an environment where all students have the opportunity to succeed
• To increase external support for university programs and priorities
• To expand connections and partnerships with our region
• To strengthen institutional effectiveness, collegial governance and our sense of community

Cal State Fullerton aims to transform into a national model 
of equity and inclusion.

For decades, higher education served as the leading voice on diversity issues, with many institutions fostering initiatives that became the gold standard for equity and inclusion. There was great promise in the practice, and college campuses served as not only the impetus for social progress and civil rights, but also a springboard for some of the movement’s most influential voices.

Ironically, as the nation’s population became more diverse, higher education went from the cutting edge of these issues to the back of the class. Today in California, for example, as the state enters its second decade as a “majority-minority” state, numerous organizations in both the public and private sector have implemented diversity initiatives far more effective than those on some college campuses.

It should be no surprise then that faculty, staff and students of our nation’s universities have begun to protest this trend, accentuating the fact that underrepresented communities continue to be impacted by historical and social inequities. And when you consider that Orange County is today what America will be tomorrow, as evidenced by the U.S. Census Bureau’s assertion that the entire country will be “majority-minority” by the year 2043, it becomes clear that Cal State Fullerton is ideally suited to address these inequities and lead higher education in the purveyance of a welcoming and inclusive academic environment for all by all.

With this in mind, in 2013 — some three years before equity and inclusion issues exploded on campuses around the country — Cal State Fullerton made a commitment to decrease the achievement gap, leverage our diversity to prepare all students for participation in a global society, and increase faculty and staff diversity. Since then, we eliminated the achievement gap for transfer students, decreased the achievement gap by 3 percentage points for first-time freshmen, facilitated a 20 percent improvement in six-year graduation rates, and hired 163 tenure-track faculty members whose diversity better aligns with the student body.

Cal State Fullerton is hard at work building upon these achievements and to create a campus environment where all differences are not only welcomed and embraced, but valued and harnessed for greater good of our community, the nation and beyond.