CLU celebrates 50 years

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - Sept. 24, 2009) California Lutheran University is hosting an anniversary bash to celebrate its first 50 years.

"CLU Turns 50" will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, in the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center.

The fun-filled evening will honor CLU's founders and revisit the last five decades. Theatre arts professor Michael Arndt and his wife, Vicki, an undergraduate alumna who returned to CLU to earn an MBA, created the imaginative program. Directed by Arndt, the program will star alumni, faculty and student performers. Displays will outline CLU's history. Everything from the food to a fashion show will recount the past 50 years.

Ethel Beyer, the university's first employee and recipient of an honorary degree in 1997, is sponsoring the event. Alumni from the 1960s through the 1990s are planning the celebration.

California Lutheran College was officially incorporated on Aug. 4, 1959. Lutheran church leaders had long dreamed of starting such an institution in the West and had considered other locations, but it was on land donated by Conejo Valley rancher Richard Pederson, the son of Norwegian pioneers, that the dream became a reality. The ranch's chicken coops were converted into the first offices and classrooms, and dormitories were built nearby. In September 1961, 330 students began classes.

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges accredited the college in its first year, a rare accomplishment. The curriculum expanded to include graduate programs in 1970, and the college's name was changed to California Lutheran University in 1986 to better reflect the breadth of its offerings.

Today, the university has 2,250 undergraduate and 1,300 graduate students in its College of Arts and Sciences, School of Education and School of Business. Members of the CLU student body come from across the nation and around the world and represent a diversity of faiths and cultures. In addition to the main campus in Thousand Oaks, CLU also has centers in Oxnard and Woodland Hills.

CLU's mission is to educate leaders for a global society who are strong in character and judgment, confident in their identity and vocation, and committed to service and justice.

Tickets for "CLU Turns 50" are $50 per person. A no-host bar will be available.

Reservations are requested by Oct. 15. For tickets or more information on this event and other ways CLU is celebrating "Fulfilling Our Promise," call (805) 493-3151 or visit http://www.callutheran.edu/50.