College of San Mateo

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College of San Mateo (commonly referred to as CSM) is a community college and part of the San Mateo County Community College District. [1] Founded in 1922, CSM is presently located on 153 acres in the hills of San Mateo and serves about 11,000 students each semester.[2] The college offers 99 majors, 82 A.A./A.S. degree majors, 91 certificate programs and several hundred transfer areas.[3]

Contents

[edit] Location and Environment

College of San Mateo (CSM) sits in the hills of San Mateo, about 30 minutes south of San Francisco and roughly the same distance north of San Jose. Two major highways, 101 to the west and 280 to the east, sandwich CSM. Both intersect with and feed Highway 92, which provides a direct exit to the college at West Hillsdale Boulevard.[4] The campus was primarily designed by John Carl Warnecke, a Stanford and Harvard University educated architect. His use of pillars and jutting, sloped roofs give CSM buildings a classic look. From its perched vantage point, the community college features picturesque views of the Bay Area to the north, east and south.

Through a Capital Improvement Program, funded by $675 million worth of bonds approved by voters in 2001 and 2005, major new construction, renovation, seismic-retrofitting and improvements to the infrastructure has taken place at CSM. New facilities include the state-of-the-art Science Building and planetarium and the Regional Public Safety Center, which is home for the county’s police academy. Many classrooms have been upgraded with new technologies and converted into what’s called “Smart” classrooms. Funded by local redevelopment agency funds, the school’s athletic fields and complex are new, featuring synthetic turf fields. Over the next several years, more construction and renovation will take place, with the construction of a new multi-use building that will house the bookstore, food service, administrative, student support services, faculty offices and meeting rooms.

[edit] Historical Timeline

1922 to 1996:[5]

  • 1922 With 35 students, San Mateo Junior College opens in several rooms of San Mateo High School on Baldwin Avenue.
  • 1931 Charles S. Morris takes over as the new dean (and later becomes president) of the college. He transforms the institution from a “junior” to a “community” college.
  • 1947 Enrollment skyrockets after the war. The college leases old U.S. Merchant Marine Academy buildings at Coyote Point. Classes are now held there, at Baldwin and at a $350,000 science building on Delaware Avenue completed in 1939.
  • 1954 Students vote to change name from San Mateo Junior College to College of San Mateo (CSM) in part to honor Charles S. Morris.
  • 1956 Innovative educator Julio Bortolazzo begins a 12-year tenure as college president and district superintendent, initiating a plan for a new campus site.
  • 1963 Present-day CSM hilltop campus opens with 15,000 students.
  • 1968 Racial discontent leads to a student protest and riot on campus.
  • 1979 Lois A. Callahan becomes the first woman president of CSM.
  • 1980 Vice presidential candidate George H. W. Bush speaks to faculty and students at CSM.
  • 1989 The 7.2 Loma Prieta earthquake leads to significant earthquake retrofitting on campus, including work done on the college’s library in 1996.

2000 & Beyond:

  • 2001 San Mateo County voters approve a $207 million bond measure for the repair and restoration of CSM, Skyline College and Cañada College.
  • 2002 CSM celebrates its 80th anniversary with a Book Fest featuring guest speakers including noted authors and speakers.
  • 2005 San Mateo County voters approve another bond measure, this one for $468 million for continued construction, repair and restoration for CSM, Skyline College and Cañada College.
  • 2005 CSM hosts the first-ever community college football bowl game in San Mateo County.
  • 2006 CSM’s new Regional Public Safety Center opens on June 14.
  • 2006 CSM’s state-of-the-art science building opens for classes on August 16
  • 2007 CSM’s state-of-the-art planetarium opens for classes and the public in January.
  • 2007 Michael Claire becomes one of CSM’s youngest presidents, succeeding President Emerita Shirley J. Kelly.

[edit] Notable Alumni

[edit] Academic Divisions

CSM has six academic divisions: Business/Technology; Creative Arts/Social Science; Language Arts; Math/Science; Physical Education/Athletics/Dance; and Coastside/Special Projects.

[edit] Student Services

CSM’s student services include admissions & records, counseling, financial aid, health services, disabled students programs and services, transfer center, extended opportunity programs and services, study abroad and international student programs, psychological services, student activities, student employment and cooperative work experience programs.

[edit] Accreditation

CSM is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, an institutional accrediting body recognized by the Commission on Recognition of Postsecondary Accreditation and the U.S. Department of Education. As of early 2008, WASC had placed the college on "warning" status.

[edit] Athletics

CSM offers students the opportunity to participate in the following team sports: men’s baseball, football, track & field, cross country and swimming and women’s softball, basketball, track & field, cross country, water polo and swimming. The school’s mascot is the bulldog.

[edit] KCSM

KCSM’s television and radio stations, licensed to the San Mateo County Community College District, made their broadcast debuts in 1964. Both were originally established as student broadcast training facilities. Today, the stations have professional staffs operating full service public television and radio stations and continue to serve as learning laboratories for students enrolled in the College of San Mateo Broadcasting Arts Department.

KCSM is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, the heart of the fifth largest television and radio market in the United States with the potential of reaching an audience of more than 6 million people. KCSM TV broadcasts 24 hours a day and is a member of PBS. Its programming is oriented exclusively towards adult viewers, with early morning and day programming consisting entirely of college-level telecourses. Prime time and weekend hours are devoted to PBS programs and locally produced programs. KCSM’s 1.5 million watt broadcast signal has a coverage area that includes San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Solano, Sonoma and Napa counties. Additionally, KCSM is carried on 60 cable systems in the Bay Area and nearly half a million viewers tune in each week.

KCSM Jazz 91 also broadcasts 24 hours a day and has a growing audience that currently numbers more than 200,000. According to Arbitron, the station is among the top 35 "most listened to" non-commercial stations in the United States. An affiliate of Public Radio International and National Public Radio, KCSM is the only station in the Bay Area with a 24-hour jazz format. Hosts of the various programs KCSM produces include veteran jazz musicians, educators, seasoned jazz broadcasters and often a combination of the three.

[edit] Music and Drama Programs

Fred Roehr, head of CSM's music department from 1931 to 1968, with his wife Betty, in December 1983 (Robert E. Nylund)
Fred Roehr, head of CSM's music department from 1931 to 1968, with his wife Betty, in December 1983 (Robert E. Nylund)

The college established the nation's first college jazz band in 1946, under the direction of Bud Young, who was succeeded by Dick Crest. The college's choral groups were led from 1931 to 1964 by Fred Roehr, who was succeeded by Galen Marshall. Marshall founded the Masterworks Chorale in September 1964, a community organization that continues to this day. Roehr retired in 1968, after 37 years on the faculty.

The college maintained an active drama department for many years, presenting plays such as Oedipus Rex and Waiting for Godot, before Cañada College took over drama productions for the San Mateo County Community College District.

[edit] Masterworks Chorale

Founded in 1964 by Artistic Director Emeritus Galen Marshall, the Chorale performs masterworks of sacred and secular choral literature from the Baroque period to today. Dr. Bryan Baker has been Artistic Director of the Chorale since 2002.

Each season, the Chorale performs 3 to 4 pairs of concerts featuring instrumental ensembles made up of the Bay Area's leading professional musicians. In addition, Masterworks is joined by professional vocal soloists whose credits include appearances with leading symphony orchestras and opera companies throughout North America and Europe.

Among the Chorale's guest appearances are performances with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Jose Symphony, the Festival of Masses, and the Cabrillo Festival. Internationally, Masterworks has received critical acclaim during seven European tours, a tour of the People's Republic of China, a performance at Avery Fisher Hall and their 1989 debut at Carnegie Hall, featuring the Verdi Requiem.

The 25th Anniversary of the Chorale featured the World Premier of Alexander C. Post's Sea of Light, commissioned by the choir for the anniversary celebration. Capping their 30th Anniversary season celebration was Masterworks' Central European tour, including performances in Brno, Krakow, Budapest, and Prague, accompanied by the Brno Concert Orchestra and the Budapest Concert Orchestra. A recording of the Prague concert, recorded live on July 8, 1994, at the Rudolfinum's Dvorak Hall was aired on the radio series, The First Art, heard on over 200 stations throughout North America. Featured on the recording is the Beethoven Choral Fantasy with guest accompanist Jon Nakamatsu, who in 1997 won the acclaimed Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. For the 40th Anniversary season finale, Jon Nakamatsu and founder Galen Marshall returned to perform the Beethoven Choral Fantasy again with the Chorale.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.smccd.edu/accounts/smccd/ Official San Mateo County Community College District Web site
  2. ^ Class Act College of San Mateo--A History by Michael Svanevik & Shirley Burgett (Custom & Limited Editions, San Francisco, California, 1996)
  3. ^ http://www.collegeofsanmateo.edu/webpages/studytracks.asp
  4. ^ http://collegeofsanmateo.edu/webpages/maps.asp
  5. ^ Class Act College of San Mateo--A History by Michael Svanevik & Shirley Burgett (Custom & Limited Editions, San Francisco, California, 1996)
  6. ^ Who's Who at KSCM.COM

[edit] External links

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