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.

• For the third year in a row, CSU, Chico has been designated as a member of the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, highlighting civic engagement activities during 2008. The award is made by the Corporation for National and Community Service.
• In January 2008, 115 students, faculty, and staff traveled to New Orleans to rebuild houses devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The third trip for the “Rebuild New Orleans” project, this one had the largest number of volunteers.
• For the third year in a row, CSU, Chico is the top collegiate fund-raiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., with a total of $200,868 raised during 2008-2009, with records for the number of volunteers, 2,300—and the number of letters sent out requesting support, more than 50,000.
• In 2008, more than 500 middle and high school students, from the Oregon border to the Bay Area, engaged in fun, hands-on math, science, and engineering competitive events at the annual MESA Day at CSU, Chico. Faculty, students, and staff joined alumni and industry and community volunteers to serve as event judges. MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) partners with public schools throughout California.
• 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 42nd anniversary in 2008.

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

• In July 2008 TheDailyGreen named CSU, Chico one of the 10 Greenest Colleges in America, joining Harvard, Oberlin, Duke, and Evergreen State, among others.
• The Green Campus Program at Chico State won the 2008 Best Practices award for Student Energy Efficiency in the CSU, Office of the Chancellor Energy Efficiency Partnership Program. The student-run Green Campus is dedicated to improving energy efficiency on campus and educating students, faculty, and staff about energy conservation.
• CSU, Chico was awarded the 2007 Grand Prize by the National Wildlife Federation for efforts to reduce global warming.
• 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 Middlebury, Oberlin, and Harvard. Chico is also one of the 14 colleges and universities singled out by the Sierra Club in its “Cool Schools” feature in the September-October 2008 Green College Guide.
• CSU, Chico biologist Jeff Price 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 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.
• Chico’s University Printing Services was awarded Forest Stewardship Council chain-of-custody certification by Scientific Certification Systems.
• Mark Stemen, professor of Geography and Planning, was named Sustainability Champion at the Seventh Annual UC/CSU/CCC Sustainability Conference held in August 2008.

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

• Biology students Christopher Paul Morris and Kevin Roy won first place in the 2008 California State University Student Research Competition. Their research project used agricultural waste as a medium for bacteria to produce lactic acid, which can be made into biodegradable plastic.
• Chico’s Chemistry Summer Research Institute offers students research opportunities, mentoring, and financial support. Begun in 2004, CSRI brings students, professors, and research scientists together to share the details of their projects, methodology, and findings.
• In 2007, agriculture student Jessica Cook won first place in the undergraduate category of Biological and Agricultural Sciences.
• The Environmental Creativity and Research Grant program stimulates creativity and student research with matching grants up to $10,000 to advance sustainable development at CSU, Chico and in the community. Other research opportunities include the California State University 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 that highlights undergraduate and graduate student research papers.

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

• The conventional dairy at the University Farm was transitioned to organic in 2005 and 2006, and sold its first certified organic milk in March 2007. Managed by college staff and students, the dairy has decreased the amount of grain used in the milk production process and significantly improved the dairy’s net profit per cow, in terms lower replacement rates and reduced veterinary costs.
• The first harvest of lettuce from University Farm’s new organic vegetable field arrived at Associated Students Food Services in May 2008. The field grows fresh organic lettuce and radish in the spring and squash, melons, tomatoes, and peppers in the fall. The organic vegetable project was initiated through a grant from the Earl Foor Foundation and the CSU, Chico Institute for Sustainable Development.
• The Chico Economic Planning Corporation honored the CSU, Chico 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.

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Employers prefer Chico State graduates.

• In 2007-2008, more than 300 companies, school districts, and organizations came on campus to recruit students of all majors. Companies that recruit often on campus include Union Pacific, Deloitte, Pacific Gas & Electric, Foster Farms, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Mervyns, and Chevron.
• A 2007 survey of recruiters rated 70 percent of Chico State students Outstanding or Above Average compared to students at other universities. Over 83 percent rated our Career Center operations as either Outstanding or Above Average.
• Forbes Magazine ranked CSU, Chico 24th in the nation among all public universities for the median salaries of its graduates, based on a 2008 study by PayScale.com, which looked at the earnings of college graduates with 10–20 years of work experience.

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International programs open doors for Chico State students.

• 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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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 Chico’s construction management graduates are hired after completing the program, and they work at many of the largest firms in the country.
• In 2008, CSU, Chico construction management student teams won third place in the Marine Construction Division at the national championship and third place in the Design/Build Division at the regional championship at the prestigious 21st Annual Associated Schools of Construction Student Competition.
• 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.

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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 third  time in three years, students in the Model United Nations course at CSU, Chico won the top award at the 2009 national conference held in New York. The Chico delegation, representing the Republic of Korea, was named an Outstanding Delegation from a field of more than 160 colleges and universities.
• For the past 10 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. Chico’s 2007 and 2008 teams also won the Outstanding Delegation award. Only the top 8 percent of all attending schools attain the outstanding ranking. In addition, the 2009 Chico team won the award for Outstanding Position Papers. Chico’s awards place the team within the top 4 percent of all schools attending the competition.

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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.

• Manufacturing technology students won the Grand Prize at the prestigious 2009 Western Tool Exposition and Conference Manufacturing Challenge, the nation’s largest manufacturing expo, for the fifth year in a row. Chico also won first place in 1987, 1993, 1995, and 1998. Students in the Society of Manufacturing Engineers designed and manufactured a shortrun production of a solid hardwood machinist’s tool chest based on a 100-year-old classic design for the 2009 competition.
• 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.
• Three graduate students in Electrical Engineering won two top awards at the 2008 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers student design competition. In a rare double win, Chico students won the Electromagnetic Compatibility Student Design contest and the Leo L. Beranek Student Travel Award. This is the fourth consecutive year that CSU, Chico has won this competition.

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

• The Wildcats finished in the top 10 percent of schools in the prestigious U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup race, completing the 2007-2008 year 25th in the nation among all 283 Division II schools. It is the University’s fifth consecutive top-25 finish and seventh in the last eight years.
• Both cross-country teams finished among the top six in the nation, and the baseball, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, and women’s basketball teams earned NCAA post-season appearances.
• Scott Bauhs won his second national championship in the 5,000 meter race, and Sarah Montez captured the 3,000 meter national championship. Bauhs was the 2008 NCAA Division II Male Track and Field Athlete of the Year.
• Kim Sutton (women’s soccer), Molly Goodenbour (women’s basketball), and Kirk Freitas (men’s track) were all named CCAA Coach of the Year.
• 35 Wildcat student-athletes earned CCAA All-Academic award honors for the 2007-2008 academic year, and 24 were honored with Division II Athletics Director Association Academic Achievement Awards. 


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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.

• At the Associated Collegiate Press’ 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. The Orion also took first-place honors 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 (10th overall) from the National Newspaper Association in 2006 and the Online Pacemaker award in 2007. No other school has won the Pacemaker – which has been called the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism – four straight times.
• In 2007, The Orion was named the nation's best student newspaper for the fifth time in eight years by the Associated Collegiate Press.
• 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 38 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 13,000 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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