CSUN Proposes Large Electronic Message Sign on Campus

Hoping to boost community awareness of arts and other on-campus events, officials at Cal State Northridge are proposing to erect a large electronic message sign--similar to those used to advertise auto malls--on Nordhoff Street in front of the university.

The Campus Planning Board, an advisory group to CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson, recently gave conceptual approval for the so-called reader board sign. Officials in the university’s School of the Arts, which proposed the estimated $170,000 sign, are working out the details before submitting a final plan to Wilson within several weeks.

“We want to be out there where people can see what the university is doing, but we don’t want to get gaudy, the Las Vegas effect,” said Winslow Rogers, the arts school’s manager of academic resources. Rogers said the sign would fit with the university’s earthquake recovery motto of “Not Just Back . . . Better!”

Campus officials are considering a sign with a 7 1/2-foot-high-by-10-foot-wide electronic display area capable of displaying color text and graphics. The actual sign would be elevated on poles and somewhat larger in size because of borders bearing the university’s name, logo and other standard information.

The location being proposed is the northwest corner of Nordhoff Street and Etiwanda Avenue, near the campus’ arts buildings and across the street from a row of houses. The electronic sign would replace an old lighted display board at the northeast corner damaged in the Jan. 17 earthquake.

Because CSUN is a state university, the campus is not subject to Los Angeles city restrictions on signs. Although such electronic displays are relatively rare in the San Fernando Valley, they are permitted by city codes. An aide to Councilman Hal Bernson said he doubted Bernson would have any objection to the plan.