Enrollment Up as CSUN Starts New Semester

Cal State Northridge showed signs of its continuing post-earthquake recovery Monday on the first day of semester.

Enrollment is surging, with 27,106 students as of Friday, a 2% increase over the same time last year, according to early figures. Staffing levels are also higher this year, with 70 new faculty members, 20 more than last year and more than any year since 1992.

Students descended Monday upon a campus that has almost completely recovered from the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The two wings of the Oviatt Library were open for the fall semester for the first time since the quake. Four more construction projects, accounting for about $50 million in federal recovery funds, are scheduled to be completed in the coming two semesters.

But perhaps the most exciting development for the ever-hungry university crowd is the new Krispy Kreme cyber cafe, the seventh such doughnut outlet in Southern California.

Vendors selling everything from incense to pepper spray set up booths on the quadrangle to take advantage of the densest population of young people in the San Fernando Valley. Los Angeles-based Web site, https://www.click2asia.com parked a van on the quad and gave out free letter openers, T-shirts and paddle balls.

“We’re reaching out to college campuses with large Asian populations,” said Click2Asia marketing manager Jack Chen. “We’ve identified the top 25 Asian campuses nationwide, including CSUN, University of Hawaii at Manoi, UCLA, USC, San Francisco State and San Jose [State].”

Students crowded into the university’s Matador Bookstore, checking off reading lists and standing in long lines. Among them was Dorian Grimes, 18, of Oakland, looking in vain for a Pan African Studies class text. Grimes, who hopes to be an accountant, said he decided late to attend Northridge and still needs somewhere to live.

“I wanted to go to Clark [University in Atlanta],” he said, “but it was really expensive compared to here.”

While he tries to find an apartment or a dorm room, Grimes has been staying at University Guest Housing at $930 a month.

Barbara Thomas, 19, of Echo Park, was more successful at finding her books, but sounded less sure about why she was at Cal State Northridge.

“I thought I wanted to study dance, but now I’m thinking about film or psychology,” she said. “There is so much out there, more than I even know about and I just want to take advantage of it all.”

Thomas said she was not sure if she wanted to stay at Northridge.

“I want to transfer and check out NYU and some of those East Coast schools,” she said. “It’s all so fun and exciting, and a little bit nerve-racking, too.”

Al Wright, a professor in the Leisure Studies and Recreation department stood next to a climbing wall on the quadrangle to draw attention to his field. He said the first day of classes is a good time to market little-known “discovery majors,” such as Leisure Studies.

“A lot of students may be thinking about majoring in biology or business, and yet a number of the majors on our campus offer interesting careers that people don’t necessarily think about immediately,” he said. “That’s why we’re out here.”