CSUDH News

The primary source of news and information about California State University, Dominguez Hills, its students, faculty, and staff.

Hillary Griffin

Staff Spotlight: Teddy the Toro

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Teddy posing on the North Lawn

Teddy the Toro has been high-stepping across campus for over two decades, spreading Toro spirit and encouragement at just about every event that takes place at CSUDH. A typical day for the “#1 Mascot in California” starts off with a quick check of their Instagram messages, followed by “meeting with campus squirrels for the latest updates.” The rest of their day is spent walking around campus, “checking in with my Toros,” according to Teddy.

For Teddy, the best part of the job is “bringing laughter, joy, hope, and spirit to everyone.” The self-proclaimed “most likable figure on campus,” Teddy’s proudest moments have been representing CSUDH at national mascot competitions in 2019 and 2020–the only California-based mascot to do so. They are still working on their ultimate goal of getting a life-size Teddy statue built on campus, but even without such a tribute, Teddy considers the gig to be “the best job on campus.”

Fun Facts About Teddy

Favorite movie:
Ferdinand

Favorite book:
California State University, Dominguez Hills by Gregory L. Williams

Favorite song:
“Butter” by BTS

Favorite food:
A mixture of St. Augustine grass, gluten-free oats, and organic wild foliage

Cats or dogs?
Anything but Golden Eagles!

Who would play you in a movie about your life?
Dwayne Johnson

Most interesting or unusual job you had before CSUDH?
I called people about their car’s extended warranty.

Favorite place to spend time:
The Nap Room in Loker Student Union

Describe yourself in three words:
Affectionate, unconventional, imaginative.

What is one thing you could not live without?
The Toro Nation!

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Hit Netflix Comedy “Space Force” Showcases CSUDH Campus

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Behind the scenes of Netflix's comedy, "Space Force"
A behind the scenes shot featuring the University Theatre. (Photo courtesy of Eric Oum)

Netflix’s satirical comedy “Space Force” has been one of the streaming service’s most popular shows since its May 29 debut – and millions of viewers are getting a great look at the CSUDH campus every time they tune in.

Much of the show takes place on the newly-formed U.S. Space Force’s sprawling base, which the CSUDH campus doubles for in many of the exterior shots. When General Mark Naird, played by Steve Carell, races between buildings or John Malkovich’s character Dr. Adrian Mallory strides out of his science office, that’s CSUDH in the background.

John Malkovich, as Dr. Adrian Mallory, leaves his office, which many Toros may recognize as the North Library. (Copyright Netflix 2020)
John Malkovich (as Dr. Adrian Mallory) leaving his office, which many Toros may recognize as the North Library. (© Netflix 2020)

Filming took place during the summer and fall of 2019, with the University Library, west walkway, and University Theatre as the main locations. “We try to have filming take place on days when the university isn’t so busy with students, to limit the impact on campus operations and disturb things as little as possible,” said Eric Oum, marketing and innovation project coordinator for the CSUDH Foundation, which oversees and arranges campus shoots in partnership with Ferguson’s Location Library. The foundation has worked with the company for almost 20 years to market CSU Dominguez Hills as a potential filmmaking location.

Members of the on-campus Toro community couldn’t help but notice what was going on at times – the production transformed a portion of the west walkway into an extension of the fictional Space Force base for a few days. The production’s eye for detail extended to replacing the CSUDH branding on trash cans and banners with the Space Force name and logo, even though they can barely be glimpsed in the finished production.

Diana Silvers (as Erin Naird) and Tawny Newsome (as Angela Ali) traverse the West Walkway.
Diana Silvers (as Erin Naird) and Tawny Newsome (as Angela Ali) traverse the West Walkway. (© Netflix 2020)

The “Space Force” name also got the show some unexpected free publicity in June, when it was reported that Netflix had secured trademark rights to the term “Space Force” in Europe, Australia, Mexico and elsewhere – before the Trump Administration had claimed the trademark themselves. The government’s embarrassing oversight made headlines around the world, giving the show even more exposure.

“Space Force” is just the latest production to use CSUDH’s spacious, green campus and unique brutalist architecture as a backdrop. Films such as Larry Crowne and Lucy in the Sky were partially shot at CSUDH, as well as episodes of numerous television shows including “Silicon Valley,” “The Good Place,” and “24,” and a variety of commercials.

CSUDH gets more than just exposure from all these film shoots – the money received from the productions is used for various campus initiatives. According to Richard Chester, associate executive director of the CSUDH Foundation, “The average film shoot grosses between $2,500 and $10,000 per day, depending on the location and needs of the crew. All monies over and beyond operations costs are used by CSUDH in some capacity, whether for scholarships, construction support, or other university needs that fall outside a department’s budget allowance.”

While Netflix hasn’t made a decision about a possible second season, the show’s popularity makes it a good bet. Oum says that CSUDH will be ready if the “Space Force” decides to descend onto the campus again. “We would definitely welcome them back!”

Art Professor Devon Tsuno Leads Community Network in Creating, Distributing Face Shields

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Nurse Rieko Takamatsu hands a colleague a 3D-printed face shield.
Nurse Rieko Takamatsu hands a colleague a 3D-printed face shield printed by her husband, Devon Tsuno.

As the spread of COVID-19 accelerated during the early stages of the pandemic in the U.S., assistant professor of art and design Devon Tsuno became increasingly worried about his wife, Rieko Takamatsu, a nurse treating patients in a Los Angeles hospital that had begun rationing its short supply of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Tsuno wanted to do something to help his wife but wasn’t sure what. In a conversation with Cypress College art professor Ed Giardina on how two artists could have an impact, they decided to create and 3D-print their own medical face shields. They suspected others would be willing to help and began reaching out to friends and colleagues, primarily within the art community.

An art collector friend came forward with the first $1,500 to purchase printers and the necessary materials to get started. Giardina also received a donation from Cypress College’s president, JoAnna Shilling. Soon, the educators began printing the shields from their homes.

Assistant professor of art and design Devon Tsuno holding a face shield with 3D printing equipment in background.
Devon Tsuno examines a face shield he printed from home.

“Once my wife started wearing them and began telling colleagues, the word spread really quickly. We started posting what we were doing online and within hours people were showing up at my house asking for the shields,” said Tsuno. “They go fast. I typically accumulate no more than three days’ worth of printing before I’m giving them all away.”

Since their efforts began in mid-April, Tsuno and Giardina have raised more than $13,000, which has allowed them to increase production to 33 3D printers. Their distribution network now includes 24 volunteers who have collectively printed more than 6,200 face shields. The team includes art engagement fellows and teaching artists from CSUDH’s PRAXIS program, as well as faculty from Loyola Marymount University, and art students from both campuses.

“It is great when people are willing to help people they don’t know, and to see students using their organizational, collaborative, and creative skills to do it.”

The funding has been used to purchase one 3D printer and material for each face shield producer to work from his or her home. “There is basically someone printing within 30 minutes of every area. The idea is to cast a wide net, so it is easier to get shields to people faster,” explained Tsuno. “We are careful to ensure no risk of infection. We tell people that we don’t ship them – our people leave orders on their own porches without making contact – if they are willing to come and pick them up, we are more than willing to give them away.”

The network’s shields have also been delivered to grocery chain employees at Trader Joe’s, Vons, and Whole Foods, and small businesses and city services such as bakeries, dry cleaners, the L.A. Food Bank, and the Huntington Beach Fire Department.

3D printing equipment.
3D printing equipment.

Merging Crises

For the last three weeks, Art and Design student Jose Espinoza has been printing face shields day and night from his living room in Long Beach.

Many of his shields have been delivered to facilities in his city, such as St. Mary’s Hospital and the Long Beach Healthcare Nursing Home. He has also given shields to friends and neighbors, some with existing health conditions and others who are essential workers. Since Espinoza has been working during the pandemic, he has also solicited others to help distribute the face shields.

Espinoza recently supplied shields to those involved in local protests. “It was extremely rewarding giving them to those at the Black Lives Matter protests,” he said. “My original intent was to protect my friends from police pepper-spray. Then I thought about the health risks of meeting in such large crowds, and how helpful the shields would be to keep people safe from possibly contracting COVID-19 in a situation where social distancing would be virtually impossible.”

California and Beyond

Nurses from Kern Medical in Bakersfield thank CSUDH.
Nurses from Kern Medical in Bakersfield thank CSUDH.

Tsuno and Giardina’s network now is called the 3D PPE Artist Network and is distributing to PPE user throughout Orange and Los Angeles counties and as far as California’s Central Valley, Arizona, New York and Mexico.

In the Mixe region of Oaxaca, Mexico, Sandra Maldonado is working with the Tamazulapam Community Hospital, the only hospital in region, where all the doctors and nurses have tested positive for COVID-19.

“They had to close the hospital down, but have reopened it with part-time seasonal workers who still don’t have any PPE,” said Tsuno. Malondado, one of the PRAXIS teaching artists, is from that area and is working with nurses at the hospital. “We have recently printed 200 face shields to send to them, and raised close to $800 to buy hundreds of gloves, masks, and other materials.”

Another group of volunteers produced 200 shields and delivered them via convoy to the Navajo Nation in Arizona. It was organized by the Auntie Sewing Squad artist group and led by artist and comedian Kristina Wong. They then organized a fundraiser that collected $1,700, enough to outfit the Native American communities of the Cheyenne River reservation, and the Navajo Nation with their own 3D printers and the materials needed to print face shields.

Locally Tsuno has begun to work with PRAXIS artist-in-residence Lauren Halsey and has donated a 3D printer, materials, and 350 face shields to Halsey’s Summaeverythang Community Center in South Central Los Angeles. The PPE will be distributed with her weekly boxes of fresh food and COVID-19 supplies for the residents of Watts and South Central.

Tsuno predicts that the network will continue producing and donating face shields well into the summer. “It is great when people are willing to help people they don’t know, and to see students using their organizational, collaborative, and creative skills to do it,” he said. “That is one of the most amazing things about this entire effort.”

Listen to Devon Tsuno and Cypress College art professor Ed Giardina discuss their PPE Artist Network on the Visitings Radio Show
Listen to Devon Tsuno, Ed Giardina, and Kristina Wong discuss mutual aid efforts to meet the needs of people in the midst of the COVID- 19 pandemic on KChung News Radio (June 10 broadcast)
PPE Artist Network featured on KCET

Founding Day 2020

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Happy 60th Founding Day, Toros! On April 29, 1960, Governor Edmund G. (Pat) Brown signed into law the establishment of the “South Bay State College.” The need for a campus in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County became apparent as a response to a rising population in the 1950s influenced by the growth of families of World War II veterans, and by emerging aerospace and defense industries. Take a look at some of these snapshots in CSUDH’s history.

FUN FACTS:

  • The Palos Verdes Peninsula was the proposed location of the campus. As planning continued, alternative sites were considered in Torrance, Culver City, and the Rancho San Pedro land known as Dominguez Hills.
  • CSUDH held its first class in 1965 in a California Federal Savings Bank building in Rolling Hills Estates.
  • CSUDH has had multiple names: South Bay State College, California State College at Palos Verdes, California State College at Dominguez Hills, and finally, California State University, Dominguez Hills.
  • Famed Los Angeles architect A. Quincy Jones designed the campus.
  • CSUDH sits on land that was part of California’s first Spanish land grant, the historic Rancho San Pedro. Granted to Juan José Dominguez for cattle grazing in 1784, the rancho at one point spanned 75,000 acres, from current-day San Pedro to Compton, Manhattan Beach to Long Beach and Paramount.
  • In 1967, the campus held its first commencement with four graduates. With the Class of 2019, CSUDH’s total number of graduates exceeded 100,000.

Terry McGlynn Co-Authors New Study on the Effects of Temperature on Urban Biodiversity

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A researcher gathers data from a solar weather station at one of the community test sites. An insect trap can be seen in the foreground.
A researcher gathers data from a solar weather station at one of the community test sites. An insect trap can be seen in the foreground.

(Carson, CA) – Terry McGlynn, professor of biology and director of undergraduate research at California State University, Dominguez Hills’ (CSUDH), has co-authored a new study published in the prestigious journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The study examines the effects of temperature on urban biodiversity.

Los Angeles faces rising temperatures and a drier climate with global climate change. As climate change continues, it is crucial to keep track of biodiversity in urban areas. Insects are sensitive to temperature and are integral to urban ecosystems. Urban insects, such as phorid flies, which are the specialty of the Entomology Department at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM), are an interesting case study for how biodiversity is distributed across Los Angeles.

Research volunteer Eric Keller and his dog sit in front of a backyard insect trap.
Research volunteer Eric Keller and his dog sit in front of a backyard insect trap.

In a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team of scientists that included McGlynn; co-first author Emily Meineke, a postdoctoral research associate at Duke University and Harvard University Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; and Brian V. Brown, co-director of the Natural History Museum’s Urban Nature Research Center (UNRC) and curator of entomology; surveyed the biodiversity of phorid flies throughout the L.A. area.

Collaborating with the public, the researchers recruited volunteers to allow researchers to place insect traps in their yards. In the large study, more than 30 sites were tested over the course of a year, yielding a total of 42,480 specimens. L.A.’s microclimates offered a unique opportunity to study several environmental factors at once. The researchers examined how hard surfaces, plant cover, and temperature could impact biodiversity. They found that temperature had the biggest impact on where phorid flies were found and that the most diverse insect communities were in places where it wasn’t too hot or too cold. This suggests that as climate change causes shifts in temperatures, insect biodiversity will shift, too.

Research like this, including other Urban Nature Research Center (UNRC) projects with broad public support and participation, could be replicated in other cities, providing baseline data of insect biodiversity for further documentation and study. According to Brown, “our study shows that even small changes in temperature can have effects on the community of tiny insects that support our environment and make our cities more sustainable. This is a signal to us that global climate change could be disruptive to our cities in ways we cannot predict unless we do further research on urbanization and wildlife.”

Family of community scientists poses with backyard insect trap

Los Angeles’ unique urban environment allowed researchers to study the effects of temperature independently of other factors, such as plant cover. As McGlynn explains, “Usually, it’s hard to disentangle the urban heat island effect from other effects of urbanization. Because of the way Los Angeles is structured and the way this experiment was designed, we separated out the effects of temperature and urbanization. We could test for the effects of temperature separately. We found that it’s the temperature in the city that matters for biodiversity, and that’s a question people haven’t really been able to answer until now.”

Meineke adds that this project is unique because “There are so few studies that do this kind of comprehensive monitoring of insects in an urban environment. (Most) people who are interested in insect diversity are going to tropical forests, where the insects are most diverse. But the team at the Natural History Museum had the forethought to ask ‘What’s happening in our own backyard?’”

NHM’s Biodiversity Science: City and Nature (BioSCAN) project is a first-of-its-kind scientific investigation that is discovering and exploring biodiversity in and around one of the world’s largest cities–Los Angeles. BioSCAN is testing intriguing hypotheses about how natural areas around the city affect its biodiversity and, conversely, how urban areas may be affecting their surroundings. BioSCAN and other projects in the UNRC are taking full advantage of NHM’s museum base by directly engaging the public in the discovery and exploration of their home city.

The full report is available at https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.1818.