By Over the last seven decades, many college departments at Long Beach State have changed and evolved dramatically. The 2024 fall semester has already seen such a change, with the Film and Electronic Arts Department becoming the Department of Cinematic Arts.
Departments like the French, Italian, German, Russian and Classics departments underwent a simple name change, becoming the Romance, German, Russian Languages and Literature department.
However, some programs such as Home Economics changed several times before eventually disappearing.
According to the 1950 yearbook from the CSULB Special Collections and University Archives Amy Marie Smith graduated with a degree in her chosen major, Home Economics. At the time, CSULB was called Long Beach State College. Smith was one of 31 seniors who graduated that year.
By 1954, coursework in Home Economics was under the Division of Arts and Languages. In the 1963 – 1964 course catalog, it became the Department of Home Economics and Family Living, as part of the Division of Arts and Sciences. The department chair that year was Beulah V. Gillaspie, and the major had its own building north from Bellflower Blvd and Seventh St.
The Department of Home Economics was still educating both men and women in “enhancing the quality of individual and family life,” according to the 1992 CSULB yearbook.
In an article from the archives of the Long Beach Current, formerly the Daily Forty-Niner, the Current reported “the Department of Home Economics will become the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.” That department name has remained and the Bachelors in Arts degree has changed from Home Economics.
In the same 1950 CSULB yearbook, Industrial Arts was a major. According to the 1971 – 1972 catalog, the Industrial Arts Department had Irvin T. Lathrop as its chairman. By the 1995 CSULB yearbook, there were no students who graduated with a degree in Industrial Arts.
Despite that, during the years of 1963 – 1968, Industrial Arts put together the Cambodia Participant Training Program. According to archives, and documents from Long Beach State College’s first Cambodian Cooperative Participant Training Workshop paperwork, the objective of the annual program was to help students from Cambodia develop the ability to work as a professional group and to develop leadership abilities.
Cambodian students worked along CSULB professors in the Industrial Arts major to learn new ways to do things. This program ran for over five years. Photo credit: CSULB Special Collections and University Archives
The 1963 workshop papers said the program was focused on presenting “discussions devoted to the philosophy and development of technical education as well as to provide for visits to cultural, educational and recreational centers.”
These two programs and departments are just a few examples of the way the college has shifted and changed.
CSULB President Jane Close Conoley said the reason the college continues to evolve is due to students and their success. According to Conoley, a consulting group interviewed students, staff and faculty and returned with the response of student success being key.
“So that was where we came up with the notion that some of our uniqueness was based in our student centric approach,” Conoley said.
