Campus Life at CSUN Is Oxymoron, Survey Says

It’s anything but a traditional college campus--and that seems to be a source of discontent to many students at Cal State Northridge.

According to a new survey, 38% of CSUN’s students “are dissatisfied with the sense of community on campus” and 50% “do not participate in social or cultural activities on campus.”

The survey also found that most students spend very little time at Northridge when not attending classes.

In interviews Tuesday, many students said CSUN fell short of their expectations for college life.

“I don’t like this school,” said Leah Rice, 18, a player on the Lady Matadors basketball team. “I thought I would have a college life, but all I got is basketball.”

CSUN’s demographics tell the story of a commuter school, and the campus survey, undertaken as part of CSUN’s regular reaccreditation process, highlight some of the usual challenges of schools who have fewer dorm rooms than students.

The average CSUN student is 27 years old--practically ancient compared to many other four-year universities.

Many have families. A quarter of CSUN’s students work at jobs for more than 30 hours a week. More than half CSUN’s 27,000 students live off campus.

“I don’t spend a lot of time on campus,” said Fatima Rangsiyawong, a liberal studies major. She is in her third year at CSUN and has never lived on campus. “Once in a while I come for a study group, but I don’t just hang out.”

Ransiyawong is working to become a teacher and considers herself a good student. But she said she probably doesn’t spend much more than 10 hours a week studying because she spends much of her time working as a teacher’s aide. Although the longtime standard for college has been two hours of homework for every one hour of class, the survey said 62% of CSUN’s students study less than 10 hours a week.

While drinking beer at the campus pub with a couple of friends, Detroit native Darryl Hixon, 32, said school spirit doesn’t just happen automatically at CSUN--it must be conjured.

“It’s great here as long as you stay involved,” Dixon said. “But not many are involved. There would be a lot more campus spirit if people were more involved.”

Sitting across from Hixon was Angel Quiroz, 26, who said he joined a fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon, and works on campus to enhance his college experience.

“This isn’t high school--you’ve got to make a choice and make school what you want it to be,” he said.

Ron Kopita, vice president of student affairs, said he hopes CSUN’s athletics program will eventually help bring together the campus’ far-flung students. He also said the administration has been taking steps to create more on-campus jobs and activities for students.

Tuesday and today, students were voting on a student fee increase that would fund a proposed $75-million recreation center. Backers say the project will enhance the collegiate experience.

The survey also showed that 85% of the students felt bored in class “occasionally or frequently.”

“I’m really bored in my political science class,” said Rice, the basketball player. Rice said she might have majored in political science if not for the lackluster class.

And like many other students, Rice complained that CSUN didn’t have enough things happening on campus.

But even when the Lady Matadors basketball team made it to the finals, game attendance rarely surpassed a few hundred fans.

“This really isn’t a college-town campus,” she said. “I probably wouldn’t have come here if I wasn’t playing basketball.”

Also included in the survey were findings that 75% of CSUN’s faculty do not have enough funding for faculty development and over half said support services for teaching, research and scholarship were lacking.

Alumni were also surveyed and only 52% said they would choose CSUN if selecting a university to attend now.