The Palm Desert Campus of Cal State San Bernardino is celebrating 30 years of providing access to public, four-year degree opportunities and is poised for significant expansion in the next decade.
A campus master plan, recently approved by the California State University system, incorporates a new student union, additional academic buildings, mixed-used residence hall facilities, and health and wellness centers. Thanks to the donation of land from the city of Palm Desert, the PDC will have the capability to serve as many as 8,000 students and play a major role in Coachella Valley high school graduates attaining their college degrees.
The campus will host “The Next 30 Years” luncheon on Thursday, Feb. 23, from 11:30 a.m. -1 p.m. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased by contacting Michelle Newman at Michelle.Newman@csusb.edu or at 760-341-2883, ext. 78140.
The luncheon will provide guests the opportunity to see the programs and build-out of the PDC for the ensuing generations. As the only public university campus to be built entirely as a result of generous personal and municipal donations, the next 30 years is reliant upon the local communities to commit to the only four-year, public university option in the desert.
CSUSB opened its first branch campus in the Coachella Valley in 1986 at College of the Desert. In 1994, the city of Palm Desert donated the first parcel of land, which today houses the first part of the permanent campus. The initial building constructed, the Mary Stuart Rogers Gateway Building, opened in 2002. It was named after the founder of the Rogers Foundation, who contributed to the construction of the building, and to date has given more than $1 million in scholarships to PDC students.
The second phase of the campus opened in 2005, and encompasses the Indian Wells Center for Educational Excellence and the Indian Wells Theater. Both buildings were primarily funded by the city of Indian Wells. The newest addition to the campus is the Palm Desert Health Sciences Building, which opened in 2008.
In 2015, the city of Palm Desert donated an additional 114 acres for the expansion of the campus.
Located in beautiful Palm Desert, the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees, a doctorate in educational leadership, and teacher credentials and certificates. With more than 1,400 students, it is the Coachella Valley’s four-year public university and plays a vital role in educating and training the region’s growing population.
For more information about the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus, contact Mike Singer in the campus’s Office of Public Affairs at msinger@csusb.edu or (760) 341-2883, ext. 78107, or visit the campus website.