The cheers will be heard blocks away later this month as more than 11,000 graduating students cross the stage in front of California State University, Northridge’s iconic University Library as CSUN celebrates its 2024 commencement.
An estimated 10,924 students — including 8,929 undergraduate and 1,995 graduate students — are eligible to participate in the exercises scheduled to begin Saturday, May 11, with the university’s Honors Convocation, and concluding the evening of Monday, May 20, with the last of CSUN’s seven commencement celebrations. All eight events will take place on the lawn in front of the University Library, located at the heart of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.
Honors Convocation is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. on May 11.
CSUN’s first commencement ceremony — for graduates of the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the College of Science and Mathematics — will take place at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 17.
During the ceremony, honorary Doctor of Humane Letters will be conferred on Andrew Anagnost, president and CEO of Autodesk Inc., a leader in design and make software, and Robert Taylor, president and CEO of the private equity firm Centinela Capital Partners. Both are alumni of the university who have maintained close ties to the institution.
In 2019, Anagnost’s contributions were recognized with the university’s Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2023, under his leadership, Autodesk donated $5 million to support the construction of the Autodesk Technology Engagement Center, which will accommodate design, research, fabrication, mentorship, whole-family outreach programming and more. Taylor, who currently serves as chair of the CSUN Foundation Board is also a recipient of CSUN’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016.
At 8 a.m. on Saturday, May 18, graduates from the Departments of Criminology and Justice Studies, Geography, Political Science, Public Administration, Public Sector Management, Social Work, Sociology and Urban Students and Planning in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences will take part in CSUN’s second commencement ceremony.
CSUN’s third ceremony — for the graduates of the Michael D. Eisner College of Education and the graduates of the Departments of Africana Studies, Anthropology, History and Psychology in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences — will take place at 6 p.m. on May 18.
During the ceremony, honorary Doctor of Humane Letters will be conferred on CSU Trustee Emerita Debra Farar, who has both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from CSUN and served as a senior advisor on education policy in the office of then Lt. Gov. Gray Davis.
At 8 a.m. on Sunday, May 19, graduates from the College of Humanities and the Departments of Communication Disorders, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Kinesiology in the College of Health and Human Development will take part in CSUN’s fourth ceremony.
CSUN’s fifth ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. on May 19 for graduates in the Departments of Assisted Technology Studies, Child and Adolescent Development, Environmental and Occupational Health, Health Sciences, Nursing, Physical Therapy and Recreation and Tourism Management in the College of Health and Human Development.
CSUN’s sixth ceremony will take place at 8 a.m. on Monday, May 20, for the graduates of the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics.
During the ceremony, honorary Doctor of Humane Letters will be conferred on David Nazarian, CEO and founder of the private investment firm Nimes Capital. Nazarian, who graduated from CSUN with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1982, has a history as a visionary investor and business builder that began with his family’s early identification of the potential for wireless communications technology that ultimately became part of Qualcomm, Inc. Nazarian is also known for his philanthropic work, donating time and funding to a variety of causes and organizations. In 2014, he led a successful $25 million fundraising drive for CSUN’s business college, which was named in his honor.
The university’s seventh and final 2023 ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. on May 20 for graduates of the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication.
CSUN’s 2024 commencement ceremonies will be livestreamed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/CalStateNorthridge or on Facebook at https://facebook.com/calstatenorthridge.
For information about CSUN’s 2023 Commencement, visit the https://www.csun.edu/commencement.