State of CLU includes solid start to $25M fundraising campaign
About $3.5 million has been raised thus far in California Lutheran University’s $25 million fundraising campaign announced in October, school officials say.
The campaign was one of a variety of topics discussed at Cal Lutheran’s Jan. 22 state of the university program entitled “Where Dreams Take Flight.”
The Thousand Oaks-based institution wants to raise $12 million for scholarships, $10 million for a new track and field venue and $3 million for renovations to its Samuelson Chapel.
“Cal Lutheran has been a place where the community can gather for a variety of things — learning, athletics, faith, culture — and this campaign builds on that role as a regional anchor,” Rachel Ronning Lindgren, the university’s interim vice president for university advancement, told the Business Times Jan. 23.
She said the campaign has raised $3.5 million thus far, declining to identify the donors.
“We have three strategic priorities that will shape the future of Cal Lutheran,” Lindgren said at the program.
“The first is scholarships to ensure that talented, driven students can pursue their dreams of higher education regardless of their financial circumstances,” she said.
Therenovation of Samuelson Chapel will help ensure that faith and belonging remain at the heart of the Cal Lutheran experience, Lindgren said.
“The third priority is a state-of-the-art track and field venue, the final piece of our Division-III athletics vision … with the potential to serve as a training site for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics,” she said.
University President John Nunes, rather than giving a traditional state of the university address as he did in 2025, acted more as a moderator at this year’s event, introducing some of the speakers and giving brief remarks.
In comments to the Business Times, Nunes, who was appointed Cal Lutheran’s ninth president in May 2025, said that the state of the university’s finances is solid.
“Our balance sheet is really strong,” he said. “We’ve got some operating challenges, but we’ve got lots of runway and resources to address those challenges.”
CLU has a multi-million-dollar budget deficit due to — like many universities — declining enrollment.
Cal Lutheran currently has about 3,100 students, down significantly from fall 2018, prior to the pandemic.
Cal Lutheran plans to close satellite campuses in Oxnard and Westlake Village and relocate them to the Thousand Oaks main campus following the 2025-26 academic year.
A third satellite campus in Santa Maria will remain open.
Nunes said that the university has a growth plan, which the school is going to allow “to gain some oxygen before we think about other measures,” including layoffs.
“I’m not going to say yes or no whether or not there will be layoffs,” he said. “We first want to see what our growth plan delivers.
“And we’re kind of confident that it’s going to change the course that we’re on,” Nunes said.
Cal Lutheran CFO Dave Lawrence, meanwhile, said the university generates about $500 million a year to the regional economy.
The impact flows through payroll, local vendors, student spending, and alumni, who remain in the region as business, healthcare, education, and nonprofit leaders, said Lawrence, who is also the university’s vice president for finance and administration.
“In other words, when California Lutheran University is financially healthy and strategically focused, the benefits extend well beyond our campus into households, businesses, and communities across the region,” he said.
Nunes said he decided to defer to others this year to address the state of the university, including fellow administrators and several students who spoke glowingly about their experiences there.
“You don’t want to hear from me,” he said. “You want to hear from our team, which is so strong, actually doing the work, executing the mission.”
Nunes said he wanted students’ voices in the mix “because that’s the center of our mission: students and their dreams to take flight.”
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