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.
