A Message from DEAN HENDERSON

Welcome to the College of Natural and Social Sciences! As I enter my fifth year as Dean, I’m continually impressed with the dedication of the faculty and staff, and the outstanding achievements of the students in NSS. This fall the College celebrated the recognition of four of our faculty members at university wide celebration of faculty achievement when Susan Saul of Anthropology was named the Outstanding Lecturer for CSULA, Ramani Durvasula of Psychology and Hengchun Ye of Geosciences and Environment were named Outstanding Professors, and Carlos Robles was named the CSULA President’s Distinguished Professor for 2012. The CSULA Alumni Association named Wayne Warner of Biochemistry and Microbiology as the winner of the Outstanding Undergraduate Student award and Mario Giron-Abrego of Anthropology as the Outstanding Graduate Student for CSULA. Our students continue to lead the campus in the number of Sally Casanova Postdoctoral awards. To put this into context, we have achieved remarkable success within a university that has been nationally recognized for making first rate contributions to the public good. CSULA was ranked by the Washington Monthly as the 11th best master’s university in the United States in terms of contributions to the public good.
This success for NSS results from the dedication and hard work of an incredibly talented faculty and staff who understand what it takes to support student achievement in a difficult fiscal environment and a student body working hard to achieve educational excellence. This year promises to be challenging as a result of enrollment limitations, state budget cuts, and tuition increases. The faculty and staff of the College remain dedicated to using the College’s resources effectively to meet the needs of our students. The Chairs of the Department and Programs work tirelessly to make the classes students need available, and the outstanding student success we’ve seen shows that their dedicated work pays off.
The College has committed to providing the best faculty possible for our students, and we are delighted to welcome five new faculty members to the ranks of our tenure track faculty. Andres Aguilar and Craig Barrett will be joining Biological Sciences, Timothy Doran is a new faculty member in History, Ellen Shiau comes to the Political Science Department, and Kristin Webster moves into the Department of Mathematics. Meeting prospective new faculty members is always a joy for me, and I was particularly impressed with this group of new faculty members.
If you are a new faculty member, new staff member, or new student, welcome to NSS. This is an extraordinary community dedicated to making students success a reality, and you will feel that reality when you attend the CSULA Commencement in June. I look forward to meeting you this year.
If you are thinking of coming to NSS, I encourage you to follow up and become a member of our community. The faculty and staff here are amazing, and I want you to see that, despite the limitations of budgets and enrollment caps, student success happens in NSS.