Best of Chico State

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

• CSU, Chico was awarded the 2007 Grand Prize by the National Wildlife Federation for efforts to reduce global warming.
• CSU, Chico is ranked #8 on a top green colleges and universities list by Grist, a Web environmental news  and comment site. Other universities in the top 10 were College of the Atlantic, Middlebury,  Evergreen State College, Oberlin College, and Harvard.
• CSU, Chico biologist Jeff Price, Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, is one of the lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Another co-recipient of the prize was alumnus Dean Williams, whose work as the senior research computer scientist on the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Inter-comparison provided the computational underpinnings of global climate science.
• CSU, Chico hosts “This Way to Sustainability,” the nation’s largest sustainability conference of its kind.
• Students, faculty, and staff retrofitted a residence hall to become the nation's first sustainable campus residence house.

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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.

• CSU, Chico was named in fall 2006 as one of 10 finalists for the President's Higher Education Community Service Award. More than 500 colleges and universities submitted entries to receive the award, which was made by the Corporation for National and Community Service.
• Each year, about 2,000 student volunteers from Community Action Volunteers in Education (CAVE) average 60,000 hours in 20 programs ranging from elementary school tutoring to working with patients at Napa State Psychiatric Hospital. CAVE celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2006.
• In 2006-'07 CSU, Chico was first among 215 colleges and universities in the U.S. by raising a record $187,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the largest childhood cancer research center in the world. CSU, Chico also set records for the highest  number of participants writing the highest number of letters on behalf of St. Jude.

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• The Institute for International Education’s Open Doors 2007 Report on International Educational Exchange lists CSU, Chico among the nation’s leaders. Of all master’s degree granting institutions, CSU, Chico ranked number four in the category of leading institutions sending students abroad on long-term study abroad programs during the 2005-06 academic year, with 100 CSU, Chico students in long-term study abroad programs.
• Another 174 CSU, Chico students participated in semester-long programs, and approximately 50 students in summer and intersession programs.
• In 2006-07, nearly 300 CSU, Chico students took advantage of an international academic experience.

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• During the 2006-2007 academic year, more than 220 companies, school districts, and organizations came on campus to recruit students of all majors. Companies that recruit often on campus include Hewlett Packard, Pacific Gas & Electric, General Electric,
  and IBM.
• A 2006 survey of recruiters rated 80 percent of Chico State students Outstanding or Above Average compared to students at other universities. Over 90 percent rated our Career Center operations as either Outstanding or Above Average compared to other universities where they recruit.

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Chico State's Applied Computer Graphics program has been producing top animated films for over a decade.

• CSU, Chico students traditionally do well at the CSU Media Arts Festival, having won “Best Animation” nine times and the coveted “Best in Show” four times in the 15 years since the competition began. In fall 2006 the judges awarded the first four places in Animation to CSU, Chico films.

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Regionally and nationally, Chico State's Model UN teams consistently outperform the competition.

• For the past eight years, Chico’s Model United Nations teams have dominated the American West Regional MUN Conference and have won outstanding awards at every national MUN conference. In 2007 the 20-person team, representing Venezuela, won the coveted Outstanding Delegation performance award.

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From concrete canoe races to micro-mouse competitions, Chico State engineering students have a long tradition of winning against the best engineering programs in the country.

• CSU, Chico mechanical engineering students won the prestigious 2006 Human Powered Vehicle Challenge West Coast Competition. Chico also won national titles in 1987 and 1998.
• In 2006, civil engineering earned a berth at the National Steel Bridge Competition, for a 10th consecutive year. In 2000, they won the national championship, and in 1999 took second place.
• Manufacturing technology students won the Grand Prize in the 2006 WESTEC Manufacturing Challenge, the nation’s largest manufacturing expo, held annually in Los Angeles. The third Grand Prize win in four years, Chico also won first place in 1987, 1993, 1995, and 1998.

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The Chico State athletics program is among the NCAA Division II elite for the fifth consecutive year.

• The Wildcats finished in the top 10 percent of schools in the prestigious Director’s Cup race, completing the 2006-2007 year 17th in the nation among all 283 Division II schools. Chico State finished third in 2004–2005 and fifth in 2003–2004. Women’s volleyball recorded its best-ever season, and both cross-country teams placed in the top 10 nationally once again. The ‘Cats also had strong season performances in baseball, women’s basketball, and track and field. The most dramatic story came at the national track championships, where Scott Bauhs and Charlie Serrano collected individual national champion titles in the 10K and 5K races respectively.

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

• The Orion won its fourth straight national newspaper Pacemaker award and 10th Pacemaker overall from the Associated Collegiate Press in October 2006. No other school has won the award – which has been called the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism – four straight times. Later in October, The Orion was named the nation's best student newspaper for the fourth time in seven years by the National Newspaper Association.
• The Orion gained induction into the Associated Collegiate Press Hall of Fame in 2005 for its record of achievement.

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From programs that support educational success beyond high school to programs that send student volunteers to help in state hospitals for the disabled, Chico State reaches beyond campus borders to improve the quality of life in the North State. For example—

• The Sierra Cascade Nutrition and Activity Consortium has received more than $5 million in grants from the California Department of Health Services’ Nutrition Network to help low-income families adopt healthy eating and exercise habits. The program’s 30 partners include school districts and county offices of education.
• For more than 35 years, the Community Legal Information Center has provided free legal information to North State residents. Up to 125 paralegal interns staff the organization’s 12 programs, including the Chico Consumer Protection Agency and the County Jail Law Project. Interns serve nearly 8,000 clients annually.

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The program in forensic anthropology prepares undergraduates for careers in forensic science.

• Chico State is the only university with three practicing forensic anthropologists. They have served as consultants for the U.S. Defense Department and for the UN in Bosnia, and at the World Trade Center following 9/11, in Thailand following the Tsunami of 2005, and in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
• The Physical Anthropology Human Identification Laboratory serves Northern California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Faculty, staff, and students assist county sheriffs and coroners, district attorneys, as well as the California Department of Justice and the Nevada Division of Investigation.

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Students interested in the music industry come to CSU, Chico for the preparation and experience they need to launch successful careers.

• Chico State's Music Industry Program is the largest in the West and one of the five largest in the United States. The program includes courses in technology, music, and business. Practical learning includes the student-run Wild Oak Records, Wild Oak Publishing, Wild Oak Songwriter's Guild, and internships in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

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Chico State is one of two U.S. “mega centers” hosting SAP software for hundreds of universities around the world. SAP is the world’s third largest software maker.

• The College of Business was the first member of SAP's University Alliance Program and won the first SAP research award for integrating business software into its curriculum.
• The Accounting and Management Information Systems department received certification of information security competency from the Committee on National Security Systems, the first step in becoming a Center for Excellence with the National Security Agency.

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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.

• Virtually 100% of our graduates are hired after completing the program, and they work at many of the largest firms in the country.
• Student teams routinely win regional and national competitions.
• Six student teams from the Department of Construction Management brought home championship awards in three divisions and an individual award for outstanding presentation at the 20th Associated Schools of Construction Student Competition in 2007. More than 700 students from 32 universities competed.

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