Best of Chico State

From the Chico State Big Brother/Big Sister Program to the campus’s annual Fun Without Alcohol Fair, Chico students contribute to the larger community.

• Chico State was designated, for the third straight year, a member of the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, highlighting civic engagement activities (2008).

• Campus was the top collegiate fund-raiser for third year in a row for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, with $200,868 raised and a record 2,300 volunteers sending 50,000+ letters in 2008.
• More than 500 middle and high school students came to the 2008 annual MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) Day for hands-on math, science, and engineering competitive events.
• Dozens of students, faculty, and staff traveled to New Orleans to rebuild houses devastated by Hurricane Katrina (2006-08).
• Annually, about 2,000 students from Community Action Volunteers in Education average 60,000 volunteer hours in 20 programs; CAVE celebrated its 42nd anniversary in 2008.

• Chico State’s First Year Experience and Book in Common programs also cultivate civic engagement.

«-- back to top

 

Chico State has become the CSU’s leading campus in environmental education and sustainability programs

• Chico State is featured in The DailyGreen Web site’s “12 of the Greenest College Cafeterias” story (2009). In 2008, the Web site profiled Chico in its “10 of the Greenest Colleges of America” story.
• Chico State and Zipcar car-sharing service launched a car-sharing program on campus in September 2009. Chico is the second CSU campus to partner with Zipcar. Five self-service Zipcars will be available for rent 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Chico ranks 34th on the Sierra Club’s  2009 “Cool Schools” list. The rankings rate schools in nine categories, including energy efficiency, waste management, and transportation policies. Chico was the only CSU campus included among the 135 U.S. colleges and universities on the list. Chico was also featured in the 2008 list.
• Chico’s Green Campus Program (2008) won a CSU Best Practices award for Student Energy Efficiency.
• Chico State’s  “This Way to Sustainability” is the nation’s largest conference of its kind.
• Chico is one of 14 campuses in Sierra Club’s “Cool Schools” featured in Green College Guide (2008).

• University Printing Services awarded Forest Stewardship Council chain-of-custody certification by Scientific Certification Systems (2008).
• Geography and Planning professor Mark Stemen named Sustainability Champion at 2008 UC/CSU/CCC Sustainability Conference.
• Chico biologist Jeff Price was a lead author of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that was a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize; co-recipient alumnus Dean Williams’ work provided computational underpinnings of global climate science.
• Environmental Web site Grist lists campus #8 on top green colleges and universities, among Middlebury, Oberlin, and Harvard (2007).
• Chico received the National Wildlife Federation’s 2007 Grand Prize for efforts to reduce global warming.
• Students, faculty, and staff retrofitted Konkow House 2 as the nation's first sustainable campus residence hall(2006).

«-- back to top

 

Students at Chico State work alongside their professors on important research.

• Biology students Christopher Paul Morris and Kevin Parsons used bacteria to turn agricultural waste into lactic acid that can be made into biodegradable plastic, and won first place in the 2008 CSU Student Research Competition.
• Chico’s Chemistry Summer Research Institute offers students research opportunities, mentoring, and financial support, bringing together students, professors, and research scientists to share the details of their projects, methodology, and findings.
• Agriculture student Jessica Cook won first place in the undergraduate category of Biological and Agricultural Sciences at the 2007 CSU Research Competition.
• The Environmental Creativity and Research Grant program matches grants up to $10,000 to advance sustainable development on campus and in the community. Other research opportunities include the CSU Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology Faculty-Student Collaborative Research Seed Grants of up to $15,000 and the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve Student Research Grants, up to $3,000, for research projects on the reserve.
• The colleges of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Humanities and Fine Arts, and Natural Sciences sponsor annual symposiums of student research and scholarly work highlighting undergraduate and graduate research papers.

«-- back to top

 

College of Agriculture is leading the way in organic farming in the North State.

• The Chico Economic Planning Corporation honored the College of Agriculture with the 2008 Excellence in Agribusiness Award for its entrepreneurial spirit and contributions to the economic development of Chico and Butte County.

• The conventional dairy at the University Farm transitioned to organic and sold its first certified organic milk in 2007. Managed by college staff and students, the dairy decreased the amount of grain used in the milk production process and significantly improved the dairy’s net profit per cow, with lower replacement rates and reduced veterinary costs.
• University Farm’s new organic vegetable field grows fresh organic lettuce and radish in the spring, and squash, melons, tomatoes, and peppers in the fall.

«-- back to top

 

Employers prefer Chico State graduates.

• Forbes magazine ranked CSU, Chico 24th in the nation among public universities for the median salaries of its graduates, based on a 2008 study by PayScale.com, which looked at the earnings of college grads with 10–20 years of work experience.
• In 2008-09, more than 250 companies, school districts, and organizations, including Pacific Gas & Electric, Shaw Industries, Federated Insurance, Bose, SAP, and Chevron, came on campus to recruit students of all majors.
• In a 2008-09 survey of recruiters 93% of employers rated as outstanding or above average Career Center operations as compared to other universities where they recruit.

«-- back to top

 

International programs open doors for Chico State students.

• The Institute for International Education’s Open Doors 2007: Report on International Educational Exchange ranked Chico fourth among leading institutions sending students abroad on long-term study abroad programs during the 2005-06 academic year, with 100 Chico students in long-term study abroad programs.

• Another 174 Chico State students participated in semester-long programs, and approximately 50 students in summer and intersession programs.
• In 2006-07, nearly 300 Chico students took advantage of an international academic experience.

«-- back to top

 

Construction Management is the largest program of its type in California and the fifth largest in the country, and it is fully accredited by the American Council for Construction Education.

• Nearly 100% of Chico’s construction management graduates are hired after completing the program, and work at many of the largest firms in the country.
• At the 21st Annual Associated Schools of Construction Student Competition (2008) Chico State student teams won third place in the Marine Construction Division at the national championship and in the Design/Build Division at the regional championship.
• Six student teams brought home championship awards in three divisions and an individual award for outstanding presentation at the 2007 Associated Schools of Construction Student Competition. More than 700 students from 32 universities competed.

«-- back to top

 

Chico State’s student newspaper, The Orion, has been the most honored collegiate weekly in the country for over a decade.

• The Orion won the 2009 National Pacemaker Award, for an 11th time, at the national College Media Convention. The award is widely considered the highest honor in college journalism.
• At the 2008 National College Journalism Convention, The Orion received first place for general excellence in the Best of Show competition for broadsheet newspapers at four-year colleges and universities, as well as first-place for interactive multimedia.
• The 2008 California College Media Association awarded The Orion first place for best overall design and for general excellence for all four-year university weeklies in the state.
• The Orion won its fourth straight national newspaper Pacemaker award from the National Newspaper Association in 2006 and the Online Pacemaker award in 2007. No other school has won the Pacemaker four straight times.
• The Orion gained induction into the Associated Collegiate Press Hall of Fame in 2005.

«-- back to top