Fullerton is in Orange County, California - 30 miles south-east of Los Angeles. For those unfamiliar with the region, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with its indigenous peoples, the Kizh nation and Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe. The California Faculty Association, of which I am a member, supports this resolution on Land Acknowledgement and Recognition.
Cal State Fullerton is one of 23 campuses in the CSU system, which is the largest four-year public university system in the United States. It is a designated Hispanic-serving institution with an unusually diverse student body (e.g. roughly 44% Latinx, 21% Asian, 20% white, 2% African American.). The school currently has about 40,000 students enrolled.
My department currently has 8 tenured/tenure-track faculty and numerous excellent full-time Lecturers. Our program usually has between 80-100 majors and we attract numerous double-majors and minors too. Two of the coolest and most distinctive things about our department are:
(1) our research specialties are unusually well-balanced between analytic, continental, and pragmatist approaches, and we also have research strength in Asian philosophy,
(2) we have been holding an annual symposium for 50 years, a rare (perhaps unique) event where undergraduate students get to share a stage with renowned international scholars at a large conference open to the public, commenting on and discussing philosophy at the highest level.
Yes, of course, the climate and the coastline of Southern California are amazing, but the single best feature of teaching here is the students. They are remarkable young people who inspire me every day with their resilience, determination, humility, and passion for their studies. I also feel incredibly lucky to work in a place that genuinely values teaching and does not regard it as second-best to research.