NORTHRIDGE : CSUN Convocation to Stress the Positive

A convocation for the largest-ever class of honor students to graduate from Cal State Northridge will provide an occasion Friday for CSUN to strike back at what’s been a long year of bad news.

Lagging enrollment and ebbing state support have left CSUN faculty members fearing for their jobs, and students reeling from tuition increases. Now, campus officials say the convocation and an open house preceding it will shift the spotlight onto what’s going well on campus.

The Honors Convocation, which will follow the morning inauguration of new CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson, is open to the public. “We want people to see that we are not isolated,” said Kaine Thompson, CSUN spokeswoman. It will begin at 5 p.m. on the Oviatt Library lawn.

Of a class of 4,500 graduating seniors and graduate students this year, 960 are honor students. To qualify, graduate students needed a grade point average of 3.885 or better. Undergraduates needed a grade point average of 3.65 or better, or be selected for personal achievements.

Steven B. Oppenheimer, director of CSUN’s Cancer and Developmental Biology Center, will give a keynote address on advances in cancer research.

Starting at 11 a.m., all seven CSUN schools will open their doors to the public. The open house will include panel discussions, lectures, and demonstrations at the CSUN planetarium and disabled students’ computer lab.