Annual Report

$6.1 million for STEM and diversity

In September 2016, the U.S. Department of Education awarded Cal Lutheran almost $6.1 million over five years to encourage Latinos and low-income students in Ventura County to stick with majors in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) all the way to graduation. The university became eligible to apply earlier in 2016 as a designated Hispanic-serving institution. One grant worth $4.63 million supports STEM majors already at Cal Lutheran, and another for $1.46 million helps the university to collaborate with Oxnard College on its STEM program.

William Rolland Art Center construction

Now open for classes and events, the two-story, 20,000-square-foot building was starting construction as students arrived for the 2016 fall semester. It houses high-tech classrooms and facilities for the Art and Multimedia departments.

Dean of arts, sciences named

In February 2107, an expert in the political behavior of women, immigrants and communities of color was named as the next dean of Cal Lutheran’s College of Arts and Sciences. Jessica Lavariega Monforti was a first-generation college student at Florida State University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science. Her master’s degree and doctorate are from The Ohio State University. Lavariega Monforti went to work as dean after the fiscal year’s close, succeeding Joan Griffin, who stepped down to teach full time.

Theological seminary moves down from hilltop

On the last Saturday of May, 2017, about 80 members of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary’s community in Berkeley made a symbolic trek from the decommissioned campus at the top of Marin Avenue to a new home at 2000 Center St. near the downtown BART station. The seminary, which had used the hilltop site since 1952, became a graduate school of Cal Lutheran in 2014. In March, PLTS named the Rev. Raymond Pickett, Ph.D., to the new position of rector. Pickett now works with external constituencies and oversees the seminary, while Dean Alicia Vargas directs academic affairs.

Kimball attends Mexico summit

In March 2017, President Chris Kimball attended the first Higher Education Summit of the United States and Mexico designed to explore new partnership opportunities for independent universities in the two countries. Twenty-four presidents and five senior administrators from private U.S. universities and the president of the Council of Independent Colleges met Mexican counterparts March 29 through 31 in Guadalajara. “My hope is that Cal Lutheran can develop partnerships that would result in more study abroad opportunities, articulation agreements, and student and faculty exchanges,” Kimball said ahead of the event. In September 2016, Kimball signed a first-of-its-kind articulation agreement allowing students from Assumption University of Thailand to finish their MBA education at Cal Lutheran and graduate with degrees from both institutions.

New centers engage the community

In the summer of 2016, Cal Lutheran expanded its extensive community outreach with the launch of two new centers. The Center for Nonprofit Leadership, directed by Dena Jenson, invests in the future of regional charities by providing affordable professional development workshops to board members, staff and volunteers. Under co-directors Beth Brennan and Edlyn Peña, who are faculty members and program directors in the Graduate School of Education, the Autism and Communication Center supports primarily young people with autism who have difficulty speaking and who are discovering other methods to communicate. The center educates families and the community about augmentative and alternative communication strategies such as keyboards, letter boards and brain/computer interface systems. 

$1.2 million for Upward Bound

In July 2016, the Department of Education awarded Cal Lutheran a $1.2 million TRIO Talent Search grant more than tripling the number of disadvantaged pre-college students that the university helps to success. Cal Lutheran will serve 500 South Oxnard students annually over the next five years with the money, and will provide the only federal TRIO program in Ventura County serving middle school students. Talent Search targets low-income students who have the potential to succeed in higher education and would be in the first generation of their families to attend college or a postsecondary program. The university already had two traditional Upward Bound programs and an Upward Bound Math Science program for disadvantaged high school students, as well as a federal TRIO program called Student Support Services that helps low-income students enrolled at Cal Lutheran to graduate.

Baseball wins national championship

On May 30, 2017, in Appleton, Wisconsin, the Kingsmen baseball team defeated Washington & Jefferson College (Pennsylvania) in a best-of-three College World Series and earned the program’s first national championship. This is the second NCAA Division III title for a Cal Lutheran team, along with the 2015 women’s volleyball squad, and the third national team title, counting the football team’s NAIA Division II championship in 1971. The series win was also vindication for head coach Marty Slimak, who was an assistant coach in 1992 and head coach in 1996 when Cal Lutheran’s late-inning leads slipped away in two championship games.

KCLU receives 6 AP and Murrow awards

In June 2016, National Public Radio affiliate KCLU received six regional awards, including news director Lance Orozco’s 10th Pat Davis Reporter of the Year honor.

Competing in Division B against stations with five or fewer staff members in the 13 Western states, KCLU took home four awards from the AP Television and Radio Association. Orozco and weekend anchor Debra Green won Best Live News Coverage for their reporting on the Solimar brush fire. In addition to the Reporter of the Year award, Orozco received the Best Radio Sports Reporting award for a story on the Cowboys and Rams training together in Oxnard. KCLU was honored for Best Radio Station Website.

KCLU also received two 2016 Edward R. Murrow Awards from the RTDNA in the small market radio division for stations in California, Guam, Hawaii and Nevada. Orozco was honored for Best Breaking News Coverage for the 2015 Santa Barbara County oil spill and Best Newswriting for “Food Fun at the Fair,” a whimsical look at the unusual tastes at the Ventura County Fair.

LA Rams move in

In the summer and fall of 2016, the Los Angeles Rams converted a north campus site beneath Mount Clef Ridge into the base of its training operations. The team brought in modular buildings totaling more than 50,000 square feet of floor space for offices, locker rooms and a weight room. About 130 Rams players, coaches and trainers use the site during the regular NFL season and some of the off-season. The team, which has its corporate offices in Agoura Hills, will leave infrastructure improvements behind when it departs no later than 2021.