Sonoma State University

Sonoma State University   (University)
Motto	Lux Mentis, Lux Orbis (Latin)
Type	Public
Other name	Seawolves
The smallest members of the California university system.

Sonoma State University is a public university in Rohnert Park in Sonoma County, California. It is one of the smallest members of the California State University (CSU) system. Sonoma State offers 92 Bachelor's degrees, 19 Master's degrees, and 11 teaching credentials. The university is a Hispanic-serving institution.

21st-century expansion

In May 2001, the Board of Trustees approved a new master plan, which added 48 acres (19 ha) to the campus, located north of Copeland Creek. Rapidly accelerated growth of the residential student body was alleviated by the construction of the third phase of on-campus housing named Sauvignon Village, offering housing to non-freshman students. In the same year, the Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center was completed to accommodate the expanded needs of the library and computing services. The facility was built as a prototype library and information complex for the 21st century, housing more than 400,000 volumes in its stacks. The center also houses an advanced Automated Retrieval System (ARS) which contains an additional 750,000 volumes in a computer-managed shelving system in the library wing.

In January 2005, the university began the renovation of Darwin Hall, the university's science building, which had been built in 1967. The new building was designed to provide efficient academic classrooms and study areas for faculty and their students. The renovated structure was completed and re-opened in fall 2006 and provided new laboratories and classrooms to support the needs of a modern science curriculum.

The new property approved by the board of trustees in 2000 is also the site of the Donald and Maureen Green Music Center, funded by private donors. A component of the Green Music Center, Music Education Hall, was state-funded. The center contains the 1,400-seat Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall, which was completed in 2012. Students began taking classes and occupying the building in fall 2008. Its resident orchestra is the Santa Rosa Symphony.

In May 2007, SSU faculty voted no confidence in President Armiñana based upon financial issues surrounding the building of the Green Music Center, and faculty allegations that the building of the center took money away from academic programs. The center, originally intended to be a $10 million project, grew into a $120 million complex as additional venues and features were added to the original plan. The construction of the center was initially funded by bond measures, loans, and private donations as the use of academic funds for other uses is illegal. The Board of Trustees continued to support Armiñana despite the vote.

In February 2010, the FBI and investigators from the Sonoma County District Attorney's offices raided the campus's administrative and finance offices, seizing dozens of boxes from a storage area, as well as examining computers. The operation focused on an alleged misuse of federal grant money by the California Institute for Human Services (CIHS), a unit closed by SSU in 2007. The two top CIHS administrators were dismissed at that time.

 

A document sourced from Sonoma State University

Title	Type	Subject(s)	Publication date	Author(s)
File:A Relative Advantage - Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club.pdf	paper	Bohemian Grove	1996	Peter Phillips

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