• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Features
  • Campus News
  • CSUDH.edu
  • Contact
  • People
    • Staff Spotlight
    • Faculty Highlights
    • Alumni
  • Magazine
  • For Journalists
    • CSUDH In The News
    • Press Releases
    • Facts and Figures
    • Find Media Experts
    • Gallery
    • News Reporting on Campus

CSUDH News

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

You are here: Home / Archive / CSUDH Celebrates $200 Million Campus Transformation with Four Ribbon Cuttings

CSUDH Celebrates $200 Million Campus Transformation with Four Ribbon Cuttings

October 20, 2021

CSUDH Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Michael E. Spagna addresses attendees outside the new Innovation and Instruction Building
CSUDH Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Michael E. Spagna addresses attendees outside the new Innovation and Instruction Building.

On October 15, 2021, CSUDH hosted four simultaneous ribbon cuttings, three of which were on major capital project buildings totaling more than $200 million. The grand openings marked the biggest transformation of the campus in more than a decade, and the first additions of brand-new academic facilities in more than 20 years.

Several hundred employees, students, alumni, and community leaders came out to celebrate the growth of campus and tour the new buildings. Prior to the simultaneous ribbon cuttings, which were streamed on monitors at the main speaker platform, tours of the new facilities highlighted the buildings’ cutting-edge technology and thoughtful architectural details, designed to maximize learning and engagement for CSUDH students and the surrounding community.

CSUDH President Thomas Parham (left) and CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro (center) speak to Center for Innovation in STEM Education (CISE) student volunteers inside the Science and Innovation Building.
CSUDH President Thomas Parham (left) and CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro (center) speak to Center for Innovation in STEM Education (CISE) student volunteers inside the Science and Innovation Building.

In the 91,000 square foot Science and Innovation Building ($67.85 million), which houses chemistry, biology, and physics programs, they saw the Toyota Center for Innovation in STEM Education (CISE) at work. The center, created thanks to a $4 million donation from the Toyota USA Foundation, includes a fabrication lab, SMART classrooms, and labs for K-12 teacher demonstrations. CISE students led 3D printing and design workshops for schoolchildren from Point Fermin Elementary and Fleming Middle School, while models by Toro students displayed the creative possibilities afforded by the technology.

The 506-bed Student Resident Housing ($55.87 million) complex was also on display. Adorned with eight 47-foot-high murals by L.A. artist iris yirei hu, the colorful site opened in Fall 2021.

Guests also visited the Innovation and Instruction Building ($83.5 million), a 107,600 square foot, four-story structure housing the College of Business Administration and Public Policy. Slated to open for classes in Spring 2022, the building includes a 250-seat auditorium for symposia, collaborative learning classrooms, distance learning spaces, event spaces, and offices.

Students in the CSUDH Esports Association showed off their skills at the fourth location, near the future site of the Esports Incubator Lab. As part of a strategic partnership with CSUDH, ViewSonic is providing furnishings and technology for the lab, which will be the first to be held in a university library and will include a broadcasting and shoutcasting booth, competition stage, and classroom.

Following the tours, guests heard remarks from university and government representatives, including the CSUDH president, the CSU chancellor, and CSUDH alumnus State Senator Steven Bradford, as well as prerecorded remarks by Congresswoman Nanette Barragan, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, and Assemblymember Mike Gipson.

Visitors explore the inside of the Innovation and Instruction Building.
Visitors explore the inside of the Innovation and Instruction Building.

All emphasized CSUDH’s role as an academic powerhouse and a longtime bastion of upward mobility for Los Angeles’ underserved communities.

CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro said: “Rising from the ashes of the Watts Uprising, CSU Dominguez Hills was deliberately situated here to help make higher education more accessible to those who had historically been deprived of access, to bring the transformative power of higher education to communities that had long been denied power.

“CSU Dominguez Hills is a worthy and enduring testament to the vision and persistence of the dynamic South Bay community, whose untiring efforts brought this campus into being. I salute your energy and enthusiasm and ask for your continued support and partnership of the campus as it continues to build upon its already impressive legacy.

“These world-class facilities will enhance what is and has long been a vital and vibrant environment of inquiry, discovery and learning.”

CSUDH President Thomas A. Parham thanked the many community partners, sponsors, and university stakeholders who helped to make the massive campus transformation possible, adding:

“With these fantastic new buildings dotting our campus skyline, we do not have to take a back seat to any other school. These state-of-the-art facilities are the culmination of decades of work, but we aren’t done yet. CSUDH will continue to grow and prosper, blossoming into a model urban university that serves its students and its community.”

View more photos from this event on the CSUDH SmugMug.

CSUDH mascot Teddy the Toro poses with members of the CSUDH Dance Team outside the Innovation and Instruction Building.
The Innovation and Instruction Building
Visitors explore the colorful interior of the Innovation and Instruction Building.
Visitors touring the Innovation and Instruction Building.
Administrators and guests pose outside the Innovation and Instruction Building.
CSUDH students pose outside one of the colorful murals adorning the new Student Resident Housing complex.
A CSUDH CISE student makes a demonstration to schoolchildren touring the Science and Innovation Building.
CSUDH Vice President of Student Affairs William Franklin (center-front) addresses event attendees outside the new Student Resident Housing complex.
CSUDH students show their excitement about the grand opening of the new Science and Innovation Building, which will house STEM programs at CSUDH.
CSUDH Esports Association President Alexandra Warren Carrasco speaking at the podium.
CSUDH President Thomas A. Parham addresses the crowd gathered outside the Innovation and Instruction Building.
CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro addresses attendees outside the CSUDH Innovation and Instruction Building.
Mylene Mayers of Toyota (center), CSUDH College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences Dean Philip LaPolt (center-left), and faculty cut the ribbon on the new Science & Innovation Building.
Administrators and students cut the ribbon on the new Student Resident Housing complex.
Administrators and officials cutting the ribbon on the Innovation and Instruction Building.
Ruben Caputo (center), director of the CSUDH Esports Association, cuts the ribbon with esports team members and supporters near the site of the new Esports Incubator Lab.

Filed Under: Archive, Features

Recent Features

Ricardo Martinez with fellow youth commissioners at an outreach event in 2022.

Toro Makes an Impact as Youth Commissioner

January 12, 2023

At 23, CSUDH junior Ricardo Ortega Martinez Jr. is already a veteran in California politics. “My advocacy and community organizing started at the age of 17,” says Martinez, a political science major whose early experience with foster care growing up in Huntington Park helped shape the focus of his current advocacy ... Read More

Ken Seligson with The Maya and Climate Change book in foreground

New Book Explores the Resilience of the Ancient Maya

December 2, 2022

Throughout human history, civilizations have had to adapt to ever-shifting environments in order to survive—whether sudden, catastrophic climate events, or gradual changes that span centuries. These human-environmental relationships are at the center of The Maya and Climate Change (Oxford University Press, Nov. 2022), ... Read More

Helping Student Vets Chart a Path to Success

November 10, 2022

Tucked away on the third floor of Leo F. Cain Library, the Veterans Resource Center (VRC) may be small, but it exerts an outsized influence on the lives of students making the challenging transition from military service to academic life. “The Veterans Resource Center is the reason I’m here today and about to ... Read More

... see all Featured Stories

Footer

California State University, Dominguez Hills Logo

1000 E. Victoria Street, Carson, CA 90747
1-310-243-2001 • Send Email

Related Sites

  • csudh.edu
  • magazine.csudh.edu
  • gotoros.com

EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Get CSUDH News directly in your inbox

Copyright © 2023 · California State University, Dominguez Hills