60 YEARS OF EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE

Civic Engagement

Every year, the CSU educates students who will eventually power the state of California. As students, they learn the importance of ethical leadership and civic engagement, along with receiving a quality education. No matter which field they’ll enter into, CSU students are encouraged to view the world through a wide lens. That concept manifests itself in myriad ways, from enrolling in a service-learning course to volunteering at a food pantry, or from honoring our veterans to exercising the right to vote.

In 2019, more than 67,000 students—14 percent of the total CSU student population—contributed 1.1 million hours of service to their communities through service-learning activities. That reflects the university's historical emphasis on civic engagement through the years.

More than 500 students stick it out for a five-hour meeting in 1968 after a CSU Board of Trustees meeting

Chico

More than 500 students stick it out for a five-hour meeting in 1968 after the CSU Board of Trustees made a proposal to minimize local autonomy of individual campuses. There was also a showdown in the quad and threats of a faculty and student strike.

Thousands of students and community members gather in front of Chico State’s historic Laxson Auditorium in June 2016 to hear presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders speak just days before the primary election.

Dominguez Hills

Former Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young speaks during commencement on June 14, 1980. Also on the stage are (left to right) President Donald Gerth, CSU Trustee Claudia Hampton, Vice President David Karber, George Walker, unidentified individual and Dean Suzanne Gemmell.

Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm speaks at CSUDH in February 1988.

Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) speaks at CSUDH in February 1988. Dean Hansonia Caldwell and President John Brownell are seated to her right.

Fresno

Voters cast their ballots during the 2012 election at Fresno State campus.

Photo: Cary Edmondson

Former Fresno State ASI President Blake Zante speaks during an event in 2018. (Zante is a candidate for the Fresno County Education Board, Area 2, in the 2020 elections.)

Photo: Cary Edmondson

CSUF Lobby Corps member Amanda Martinez, right, helps Nageen Jalali (English/philosophy major) register to vote on September 20,

Fullerton

In September 2016, CSUF Lobby Corps member Amanda Martinez, right, helps Nageen Jalali (English/philosophy major) register to vote.

Communications major Oscar Montaño registers to vote on September 20, 2016.

Communications major Oscar Montaño registers to vote (September 2016).

long beach

CSU Chancellor Timothy White drops off his ballot on October 19, 2020.

Photo: Sean DuFrene

Alumni Major General Laura Yeager, who graduated from CSULB’s ROTC program, takes over command at Los Alamitos Army Airfield on June 29, 2019. Yeager is the first female to command a U.S. Army infantry division.

Photo: Sean DuFrene

monterey bay

United States Army veteran Clifford Andrews flashes a smile during CSU Monterey Bay’s commencement. (Photo predates COVID-19.)

Veterans pose for a photo during CSU Monterey Bay’s graduate ceremony on May 3, 2019.

Pomona

W.K. Kellogg, founder of the Kellogg Company, turns over his Arabian horse ranch to the state of California, which would eventually become Cal Poly Pomona, May 17, 1932. Pictured left to right are Captain William Banning, Will Rogers, California Governor James Rolph, Kellogg and a National Guard officer.

Governor Gavin Newsom, then Lieutenant-Governor, speaks during an Engineering and Cyber Security Workforce Development Summit at Cal Poly Pomona on October 9, 2012.

san diego

Members of the military stand at attention during an annual Wreath Laying Ceremony at the San Diego State War Memorial. (Photo predates COVID-19.)

SDSU veterans pose with the United States flag on July 1, 2010.

Arabian horses graze at a Cal Poly Pomona pasture against a backdrop of snow-covered mountains, 2009.

san josé

SJSU students take part in a freedom protest in 1964.

A crowd gathers around the Tommie Smith and John Carlos 1968 Olympics statue on campus for a Black Lives Matter protest on Juneteeth (June 19th) 2020.

san luis obispo

Staff work with students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Center for Military-Connected Students, which serves as a central hub of information and support and provides comprehensive assistance to all military-connected students, May 2016.

Photo: Elliot Johnson

Mechanical engineering student Caroline Swanson, left, talks with Kyle Kelly—a veteran who lost his lower right leg to a roadside bomb in Iraq—about a prototype of a surfing prosthetic he is testing out. The prosthetic was created by Swanson and other Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students. Photo: Joe Johnston

stanislaus

Veterans salute the flag during the National Anthem at the annual CSU Stanislaus Troops to College Committee and Veterans Affairs Office “Thank A Veteran” event on November 7, 2018.

Stanislaus State President Ellen Junn announces a California Civic Action Fellowship—which will pay students to participate in public service as part of their degree—at a press conference in Sacramento on February 10, 2020.

Photo: J. Emilio Flores

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SHARE YOUR civic engagement PHOTO

Do you have a great photo of a civic engagement event at the CSU? Email a JPG or TIFF to [email protected] and it will be submitted to CSU Dominguez Hills' Digital Collection Database for archiving.