ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : 100,000 Graduates in Fullerton

Cal State Fullerton graduated its 100,000th student over the weekend, a milestone for roughly a generation of service to Orange County and to California.

Many of these graduates in 35 years have gone on to live and work in the region, thus making the university a pivotal center for the training of the county’s leaders. Consider even one year; it would have been possible to spend much of Memorial Day weekend watching ceremonies. Six thousand two hundred people received degrees in a series of festive graduation exercises held at Titan Stadium.

This three-day extravaganza of tossed confetti and bundles of flowers never strayed far from the realities of the times. One mortarboard worn by a communications student on Sunday afternoon asked the question of the hour for the Class of 1993: “Now, what?”

There was no small irony in the situation of Tiffany Iida, a 22-year-old San Clemente resident who was picked randomly by the university to be its symbolic 100,000th graduate. She observed that despite her degree in graphic design, she had no job lined up.

For the university, too, it is a time of uncertainty. Budget cuts in Sacramento have shrunk course offerings and swollen class sizes. In the stadium where the graduates and families assembled, there will be no football this fall. Faculty has been laid off.

So 100,000 alumni comes at a time of transition both for the university and its newest graduates. This university has offered an affordable training ground for the sons and daughters of Orange County. As the county grew, its sprawling freeways encouraged a commuter campus and enlisted several generations of residents into the promise of the middle class.

But suddenly, even as the 100,000th graduate received her degree, the ability of the university to deliver the same to future generations is in question. Still, the university is braving the storm, as it must. If it is necessarily leaner and constrained, it has much to celebrate.

For its 100,000 graduates, and those who will follow, Cal State Fullerton deserves our gratitude.