Music icon pledges $10 million to CSUN

Curb Records chairman and former California Lt. Gov. Mike Curb has pledged $10 million to Cal State Northridge to endow his alma mater's arts college and provide a lead gift for the university's planned regional performing arts center that also will serve as a "learning laboratory" for students.

Curb, an award-winning songwriter, music producer and record company owner, launched his 40-plus-year career as an 18year-old student composing songs on the Northridge campus.

CSUN President Jolene Koester, in announcing Curb's gift, said it is the university's largest single cash contribution and the largest gift by a CSUN alumnus.

In recognition of the gift, Koester said she will ask the Cal State Board of Trustees to rename CSUN's arts college as the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication.

"Cal State Northridge is a university where nearly 35,000 students from many different cultures and backgrounds can find opportunities," said Curb, who attended the campus from 1962 to 1963. "Cal State Northridge is essential to the future of this region, so I feel my gift here is really doing something of value."

Of the $10 million gift, $5 million will support CSUN's College of Arts, Media and Communication, one of the

university's largest colleges that offers cutting-edge programs for more than 4,400 students. Four million of that will go into a general endowment for the college, and $1 million will endow a faculty chair specializing in music industry studies.

The other $5 million will support the university's planned "Imagine the Arts Center" as a "learning laboratory" for CSUN students.

The gift also ranks as the largest yet in the university's fundraising campaign for the

$100 million project, which will become the cultural heart of the region with a regional performing arts center and other planned facilities.