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The California State University, Fullerton of today is radically different than the humble little college in the orange groves established more than 50 years ago. It is now a veritable city in the midst of urban sprawl: A 236-acre complex of sophisticated structures serving nearly 37,000 students, with more than 3,000 faculty and staff members. But what should Cal State Fullerton – one of the nation’s largest comprehensive universities – look like in the future?
That’s the question before Michael C. Parker, the university’s new interim director of university planning. Parker was brought back from retirement at the request of President Milton A. Gordon to address long-term planning for the university. As part of his mission, he has met with more than 150 individuals throughout the university and completed a 33-page preliminary report to the campus on his findings. Parker is overseeing a planning process involving key participants from throughout the university and surrounding community. His efforts will dovetail with planning for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation review and planning initiatives under way in various departments.
“Really good planning is not just an analytical process,” Parker observed. “It’s a declaration of what we stand for,” including CSUF’s distinct values as a collaborative learning community for a diverse student body, faculty and staff.
“We aspire to be the highest-quality comprehensive university possible – while simultaneously remaining accessible to all qualified students in our region,” Parker said. “The habit of intellectual inquiry is fostered both inside and outside the classroom for several purposes: to contribute productively to society, to prepare students for challenging professions and to strengthen our community relationships. That’s quite a tall order.”
Major issues affecting planning include responsiveness to dwindling state support, the region’s changing professional needs, technology’s effects on the nature of higher education, meeting the needs of a diverse constituency, and competition from private universities, Parker noted.
The University Planning Committee has been reviewing the big issues facing the campus, Parker said. “In the coming year, the committee will attempt to better align the “Mission, Goals, and Strategies” document to both the administrative structures and processes of the campus, devise strategic initiatives to improve our success, and also create ways to assess the quality of our efforts.” Parker said.
“CSUF must stand out as a university of choice, and we must apply our limited wherewithal to a sustainable competitive advantage to succeed at acquiring resources,” Parker added, “to be held in high regard by the public, students and faculty.”
Many universities, Parker acknowledged, struggle to achieve their aspirations. Yet the battle for resources has rarely been so intense. He noted that Cal State Fullerton is in competition for state support with everything from state prisons and mental hospitals, to health care and preschool through community college education.
“In times of recession, greater numbers of those out of work turn to the university for further education,” Parker said. “And while it is tempting to dismiss enrollment concerns since enrollments have been and continue to be strong, we must remain competitive for the students most capable of taking advantage of our programs.”
At the same time, Parker believes that this is the best time possible for planning the future. “Because as Napoleon once said, after learning it the hard way, ‘wars are won in winter.’ It is how well we take advantage of hard times that will determine who’s left to seriously compete with us during better times.”
Critical to the university’s current planning are concurrent efforts already under way by the Cal State Fullerton Philanthropic Foundation, which, in part, helps guide the institution’s fundraising efforts and manage its donated funds. A daylong strategic planning event on February 12 kicked off the foundation’s most recent planning work.
Attended by nearly 150 individuals including the foundation’s board of governors, community leaders, alumni, donors, faculty, students, administrators and staff members, the event led to development of a strategic road map for the foundation.
“The plan will help the foundation recruit new leadership and align its efforts with university projects and needs,” said Pamela C. Hillman, vice president for University Advancement. “We are pleased that so many representatives from throughout the campus community and beyond participated in the planning effort, which will lead to real results for the university.”
Noteworthy event participants from off campus included Juan Vasquez, president of Santiago Canyon College; Mitch Hovey, superintendent of the Fullerton schools; Stephen Knott, president of the American Education League; Jill Bolton, director of community relations for Disneyland Resort; and Joan Waltman ’85 (B.S. engineering-electrical), senior vice president of Qualcomm.
“The underlying philosophy is that we want to see CSUF leading the pack, providing the best available opportunities for students and faculty,” said Doug Simao, chair of the foundation’s Strategic Planning Committee. “We want to see Cal State Fullerton continue its success.”
The foundation’s road map includes eight themes, each of them outlining a strategic area for development. It addresses acquisition of land and facilities; ongoing efforts in infrastructure improvements; leveraging government-funding opportunities; community engagement; student and alumni participation; building degree and brand equity; growth in the next 50 years; and the possible development of a university district – a distinctive, university-centered neighborhood of retail shops, dining establishments and residential areas – in Fullerton.
“Articulated goals have a way of contributing to the history of the campus,” noted Ed Trotter, professor of communications and acting associate vice president for undergraduate programs. “Alumnus Steven G. Mihaylo’s $35-million gift changed our way of thinking about things. His gift has set the stage for others that followed.”
The foundation board’s vision for the future is far-reaching, says Annette Feliciani ’80 (B.A. business administration-finance), chair of the foundation board of governors and president of AEF Systems Consulting Inc. “There is a great need to raise private capital in support of the premier university in Orange County and Southern California.”
Building the board of governors’ membership and developing initiatives to address the eight theme areas are first on the foundation’s agenda, Feliciani said. “Getting the right people to help us is critical.”
Both the foundation’s planning efforts, as well as other planning work on campus, are aligned with continuing efforts in Strategic Communications to understand the institution’s aspirational positioning, said Jeffrey D. Cook, associate vice president in University Advancement.
“We have been working to better understand where Cal State Fullerton currently sits in the marketplace, and how it wants and needs to be perceived by key audiences in the future,” Cook said. “We need to ensure that we make evidence-based editorial and design choices that help move the institution in the direction it needs to go.”
This yearlong planning process also resulted in a review of the university’s visual identity, which includes Cal State Fullerton’s seal and logo.
“This past fall, President Gordon and Vice President Hillman both endorsed Strategic Communications taking a look at our identity to see if it effectively supports what Cal State Fullerton hopes to express going forward,” said Cook. “An organization’s visual identity system is a core creative expression of itself. It is not a singular solution in helping to build the university’s brand,
but it is an important component.”
Proposals for seal and logo revisions were developed in collaboration and consultation with individuals and groups ranging from students to faculty and alumni, followed by open forums on campus.
“The president and his administrative team reviewed the proposals themselves, heard and considered feedback from the various groups, and chose to adopt one of the concepts. I think it supports our aspirational positioning well, and this new identity system is an effective tool and great first step in helping to influence and shape desired brand attributes, and strengthen brand equity over time,” Cook said.
In the new university identity system, the tree stands as a symbol of academic and personal growth, knowledge, and transformation, noted President Gordon in an May 11 memo to the campus community. “As an orange tree, it recalls our past, our presence in Orange County, and how this university grew from among the orange groves,” Gordon wrote. “The mountain imagery, inspired by the ranges to the north and east, helps define our place in the world, while also representing strength and permanence. The sun rays convey a sense of vision, optimism, and confidence in the future.” He added that these images are widely considered to be elegant and appropriate for a university, and “they help communicate the qualities and values we hope to promote.”
Marketing Professor Tom Boyd, chair of the Academic Senate’s University Advancement Committee, praised the process by which the seal, logo and CSUF emblem were selected. “A brand is not a logo, which is a common misperception,” Boyd said. “A logo is simply a symbol. The brand is the definition of who you are.
“The Strategic Communications team has done a good job of answering the question of who we are,” he added. “There was time spent figuring out our identity, and those concepts are reflected in the actual brand marks.” 
