Cal State Fullerton 50th Anniversary

Tell us about your most vivid memory of Cal State Fullerton.
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Thomas Collins
Alumni
5/6/2008 9:28:48 PM
San Diego, CA

Standing at the north entrance to McCarthy Hall, facing the library, just before the mid-day break. Watching the courtyard between the Library and McCarthy Hall transform from virtually empty, to hundreds of students moving between buildings, back to virtually empty within about 20 minutes.

Jerry P. Brown
Alumni
5/6/2008 3:11:59 PM
Fort Collins, Colorado

I attended CSUF in 1969 thru 1973, so unfortunately most of my memories are not as positive as you might hope. I was there during the student riots and news helicopters overhead, the Governor Reagan speech, the infamous magazine with the nude students (I still have my copy), the shootings/killings in the Library, and the suicide jump from the Humanities Building. But, all of that bad stuff aside, I truly enjoyed my time at CSUF. I went to the first football games at Anaheim Stadium and the great game with Grambling at the L.A. Coliseum. My favorite professor was Dr. Sid Baldwin, who truly set me on the proper path in Public Administration, and my 38-year career is ending in early 2009. I also liked Ray Johnson in Communications/Public Relations as he taught us the "real world". I remember having class meetings on the lawn or at Me & Ed's Pizza across the street during the student sit-in time frame. Actually it was totally a part of my education, and I wouldn't trade any of it. To this day I follow Cal State Fullerton news and am proud of its athletic and academic accomplishments. GO TITANS!!!

Veronica Tagle
Alumni
10/28/2007 9:08:53 PM
W. Covina, CA

I have many wonderful memories of my time @ CSUF, but the best memories involve my three kids. I started out as a transfer student with a 3 1/2-year-old son, and thank goodness for the wonderful Children's Center. I got married and had two more kids before graduating, and I couldn't imagine going to class without my kids close by. They all had the joint experience of the center and the wonderful people there, like Betsy, Bev, Francie, Jan, Cathy and Carolyn. Because of their experience there, they were better-prepared when they started school, and I was able to be a better student and mom knowing that the center was there to care for my kids and myself by providing a warm, loving and inviting environment.

I also had the opportunity to learn from some of the best professors that my major in Communications had to offer, and the one professor that left a huge impact on me was the late Dr. Richard Wiseman. He was such an engaging personality, had a kind heart and was always quick with a hello and a smile. I miss him greatly and it was my hope to return to grad school and major in interpersonal communications because he made it seem so fun.

While my kids are now in high school and mid-elementary school, they often talk about their memories at the Children's Center at Cal State Fullerton, and their hope to one day go there and be a Titan just like their mother.

While I was the first one in my family to go to college and get two degrees, I will truly be unique in that I will be the only one to get a third degree while inspiring my children to aspire for more and get their PhDs.

I would like to say hello to all of the Comm professors that are still teaching there and thanks for the memories and inspiration. It truly means very much to me.

It was a long, hard road for me to get those last two years done, but with all the hardships, heartache, pain and uncertainty that I would finish, I'm grateful that nobody gave up on me, especially my children.

Congratulations, CSUF, on an amazing first 50 years, and in the next 50 years, there will be three+ more Titans coming your way.

Jim Henneman
Alumni
10/14/2007 9:54:55 AM
Yorba Linda, CA

My memories of CSUF are vivid and lasting. One of the many gifts that I have been blessed with has been my college experience. I was a military veteran (USMC) going to school on the GI Bill in the 1970's and working full-time to pay my way through college. In 1975 I quit work to focus on my degree 100 percent.

My income had dropped significantly, and I was not an accountling major to figure that out, so I had to be creative. I am forever grateful for getting a job working in the greenhouse, because it provided me with the horticulture class gardens for food. Thanks, ladies and gentlemen, I sincerely hope that none of you failed that class. In addition to their bounty, I foraged for food at the Aurboretum which was just beginning in the mid 1970's. There were fruit trees and the community's garden plots to forage through.

Yes, that's right, I foraged for roots and berries at CSUF when I did not have money to eat. Along with cheese sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, cans of apple juice, and the occasional kindness of friends, I was able to survive and graduate. Of course I weighed only 145 pounds then. I wish I weighed only 165 pounds now.

These experiences were vivid and to this day I have always had a garden on my property. My wife and kids love the bounty, but they do not understand these experiences when I could not afford to eat. The Almighty has blessed me and they can go to school using the Bank of Dad. My oldest daughter graduated in June 2007 with a degree in Health Science at CSUF and my youngest daughter is planning on attending as well. I am very proud of both of them.

I have had many experiences at CSUF, more good than bad. When I give my daughters a tour there I tell them and show them the greenhouse and the Arboretum and say, "This is where I ate."

jhenneman@sbcglobal.net

Lynda
Alumni
9/26/2007 11:59:25 AM
Myrtle Beach, SC

Unfortunately, my memories of life at Cal State are limited. Being a child of the 60's, I fell prey to the party lifestyle after leaving home at 17 to "go off to college". I lived in the dorms my freshman year, rarely went to class but could have received a degree in small business and pharmacology in those few months.

My advice to high school graduates today - go to college, go to class, study and work hard. Four years of college is a small investment for the decades of rewards you will receive. Don't be a loser and blow an opportunity! It is way too important to get a degree!

Carlos Facio
Alumni
9/25/2007 1:25:32 PM
Fullerton, Ca

My most memorable moment at Cal State Fullerton was the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995. I was a freshman. I don't remember exactly the day, but I was watching the trial at the TSU underground and everyone in there was doing nothing but waiting for the verdict. I have never seen the TSU full of students watching TV, and it was awesome to see persons of different cultures going for and against O.J. Some students were talking back and forth and others were laughing. But to make this short, I think it was a great moment at CSU Fullerton, not because students were together sharing thoughts and feelings about a trial but just for being part in something else, other than a typical class.

Diana Tran
Alumni
9/15/2007 11:49:54 AM
Anaheim Hills, Ca

I remember it was my freshmen year of college and I was scared to death. I had a few friends from Canyon High School who also enrolled into Fullerton that same fall semester. We had just gotten out of class and didn't know where to meet up, so we decided the under the tree in front of the Humanities building. We met there all fall semester for lunch, but a trend that we kept noticing was the fact that the little fruits that the tree grew, kept hitting us or others sitting around. If anyone knows this tree, they'd know what I'm talking about... these things would just drop from the sky! It was a fun little thing I remember, annoying at the time as well. But it's a fond memory I have and every year when I pass the tree and its little fruits all over the ground, I'm reminded of freshman year. :)

steve scauzillo
Alumni
9/14/2007 4:19:28 PM
Temple City, CA

Sitting on the concrete against the Humanities Building, reading my friend Rob Huesca's essay on the cafeteria. As a journalism student, we'd swap our writing to get a second opinion. It was a special moment, like I had arrived. We had that trust, that learning atmosphere that you can only get in college. We both encouraged each other to pursue professional writing.

Also, on a sad note, being sent out to do a story for The Daily Titan on John Lennon's death the day it happened. That night, sitting, having a beer with my friend, the photojournalism major Jeff Carlick, in his apartment, mourning the loss of John Lennon. (Class of 1981, BA, Comm/journalism)

Monica Calvillo
Alumni
9/12/2007 7:04:58 PM
Long Beach, CA

I remember a warm, spring day in 1989 sitting on the bench by the Humanities building reading the book Aristole (I was a 1994 RTVF major w/a minor in political science), when my future husband, Vincent Calvillo (a 1992 finance major), walked by. Vinnie later became the president of the CSUF LBSA. I knew then something special was to come. We will be married 13 years this October, 2007. We have two daughters, Lauren, 5 and Sophia, 3. We enjoyed watching the Titans play baseball, and still do today as we have a box seat behind third base.

CSUF will always be a special place for us as that is where our life together got its start. We still keep in touch with other Titan alumni who also attended our wedding and married years later. We have nothing but fond memories of CSUF. Thank you for the fun times!

Antonia Castro
Alumni
9/5/2007 4:30:24 PM
Irvine, CA

My most memorable experience was when I studied abroad at the University of London. Angela Della Volpe introduced the London Semester program to my father and he was very adamant that I go and experience another culture. Once there, Dr. Bedell (one of my lecturers) introduced my classmates and I to urban sociology.

My whole experience there was one of the best I have had and the friends I made there also made the experience very memorable. The whole semester would yield changes in my life as a whole and how I perceived the world around me. The London Semester honestly changed my life for the better.