According to CSUDH men’s basketball head coach Steve Becker, this year’s Toro squad is “right on the verge of something special.” After a 2021-22 season that saw the Toros finish fifth in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) and advance to the semifinals of the CCAA tournament, he feels that an NCAA tournament berth is an attainable next step for the program. “We were one of the bubble teams that just missed getting into the NCAA tournament last year, and we retained a large majority of that team,” he continues. “Last year was a building time. We had some really good players and most of them stayed. We're really excited about the group that we have now.” The CCAA ... Read More
Alumni
Toros Take Local Mayoral Races
After days of vote counting, CSUDH alumni Karen Bass and Rex Richardson have scored major victories in a pair of closely-watched mayoral races in Los Angeles and Long Beach, respectively. Their wins clearly demonstrate how Toros have become important players in Southern California politics—when they take office, CSUDH alumni will hold mayorships in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Carson, Compton, and Hawthorne. Bass (BS, Health Science, ’90) defeated billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso to win the Los Angeles mayor’s race, and had built an “insurmountable lead” of 47,000 votes when the race was called in her favor on Wednesday, Nov. 16. When sworn into office, she will become Los ... Read More
Staff Spotlight: Danny Le
Information Technology (IT) Consultant Danny Le has only been working at CSUDH for a year, but in a way, getting a job on campus was a kind of homecoming—Le is a Toro alum who graduated with a BA in computer technology in 2014. The Gardena native returned to CSUDH in 2021, and now spends his days “running around campus trying to assist everyone with their technical issues.” He says he’s proud to be able to “come back and use the skills I’ve learned here to give back to students, faculty, staff, and the community.” He doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon, either. He recently had an opportunity to fill a vacant position in another department, but says that soon enough, “I realized I ... Read More
4th Annual Celebrate First Generation College Students
Hundreds of students, faculty, staff, and alumni joined in celebration of Toros who are the first in their family to attend or graduate from college on Nov. 8 for the fourth annual CSUDH “Celebrate First Generation College Students.” Rain caused a location change for the celebration, but the weather did not dampen the spirits of those who attended. They enthusiastically demonstrated that while first generation students don’t have the family history of college to lean on as they navigate college life, they do have a strong network from other first-gens, the entire campus community, and the many services in place at CSUDH to support their success. Teddy the Toro, the CSUDH ... Read More
Toro Women’s Basketball Building on Success
For the 2022-23 CSUDH women’s basketball team, this season is all about building on the foundation of success that they established last year. With an entirely new batch pf players, the team was able to finish fourth in the ultra-competitive California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). This season, they’re looking for more. “Last season was a pleasant surprise,” says head coach John Bonner, who is entering his seventh year in charge of the program. “We had 12 new players that we hadn’t coached before, and one returning player who had redshirted. Because we were so young and didn’t have a lot of experience, we didn’t know what to expect.” “We wanted to utilize that time to ... Read More
