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Former names | Soka University of Los Angeles (1987–1991) |
|---|---|
| Motto | "Be philosophers of a renaissance of life; Be world citizens in solidarity for peace; Be the pioneers of a global civilization."[1] |
| Type | Privateliberal arts college |
| Established | 1987; 38 years ago (1987)[2] |
| Founder | Daisaku Ikeda |
| Accreditation | WSCUC |
Religious affiliation | Buddhism (Soka Gakkai)[3] |
| Endowment | $1.2 billion (2020)[4] |
| President | Edward M. Feasel[5] |
Academic staff | 71 |
| Students | 495 |
| Undergraduates | 445 (fall 2022) |
| Postgraduates | 10 (fall 2022) |
| Location | , California ,United States 33°33′18″N117°44′06″W / 33.55500°N 117.73500°W /33.55500; -117.73500 |
| Campus | Large Suburb, 103 acres (42 ha)[6] |
| Colors | Royal Blue, White and Gold |
| Nickname | Lions |
Sporting affiliations | NAIA –Cal Pac (primary) NAIA –PCSC[7] (swimming) |
| Mascot | Lion |
| Website | www |
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Soka University of America (SUA) is aprivateliberal arts college inAliso Viejo, California.[8] Originally founded in 1987, it was established on its current campus in 2001 byDaisaku Ikeda, the founder of theSoka Gakkai International Buddhist movement. Though affiliated withSoka Gakkai, it maintains a secular curriculum[9] which emphasizespacifism, human rights, and the creative coexistence of nature and humanity.[10]
SUA encompasses both a liberal arts college and a graduate school offering a master's program in Educational Leadership and Societal Change.[11]
SUA is a secular college founded byDaisaku Ikeda, the President ofSoka Gakkai International (SGI). SUA's philosophical foundation originated in the work ofTsunesaburō Makiguchi, who was the first President ofSoka Gakkai and created a society foreducators dedicated to social andeducational reform in Japan during the years leading up to World War II.[10]: 6 Makiguchi was anelementary schoolprincipal, strongly influenced byJohn Dewey and Americaneducational progressivism.
In 1987, SUA was formed as a not-for-profit organization incorporated in the state of California. Initially it was a small graduate school located on the 588-acre (2.38 km2) formerGillette−Brown Ranch inCalabasas and theSanta Monica Mountains.[12] Originally the location was the site ofpre-ColumbianTalepop, a settlement of theChumash people.[13] It was within the Spanish land grantRancho Las Virgenes in the 19th century.[12] In the 1920s, it became the rural estate ofKing Gillette with a mansion designed byWallace Neff. In 1952, it became the Claretville seminary of theClaretian Order of the Catholic Church, and in 1977 it became the religious center ofElizabeth Clare Prophet and theChurch Universal and Triumphant (CUT).[12] In 1986, CUT sold the 219 acres (89 ha) property toSoka University of Japan.[12]
In 1995, the institution bought 103 acres (0.42 km2) of rough-graded property for $25 million inAliso Viejo, California, located in southernOrange County. It then spent $265 million to build the first 18 buildings of the new campus, which opened to 120 first year undergraduate students on 24 August 2001. The architecture was designed in a style resembling an Italian hillside village in Tuscany, with red-tiled roofs, stonework, and earth colors.[14] Three academic buildings were named after the founder and Sōka Gakkai's third presidentDaisaku Ikeda and his wife, Kaneko Ikeda; 20th−century peace activistsLinus Pauling and Eva Helen Pauling; andMohandas Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi. An additional academic building dedicated in 2012 was named after Nobel Peace LaureateWangari Maathai.[15]
Since August 2007 the Aliso Viejo campus has been the home for all of SUA's graduate, undergraduate, and research programs. The Aliso Viejo campus is bordered on three sides byAliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park encompassing a 4,000-acre (16 km2) county wildlife sanctuary.
The undergraduate college offers aBachelor of Liberal Arts with emphasis areas in Environmental Studies, Humanities, Social & Behavioral Sciences, International Studies, or Life Sciences. Classrooms typically use seminar methods.[10]: 6 The graduate school offers a Master of Arts degree in Educational Leadership and Societal Change.[16]
The Pacific Basin Research Center supports research on the humane and peaceful development of the Asia-Pacific Region, including the Latin American border states. It awards grants and fellowships to researchers studying public policy interactions in the Pacific Rim in such areas as international security, economic and social development, educational and cultural reform, environmental protection and human rights. The center also sponsors campus conferences, occasional lecture series, and student seminars that extend and support its research activities.[17]
The Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Human Rights will host individuals from around the country and the globe who work to increase understanding and progress on addressing the issues confronting society, including global and local ethnic conflict as well as systemic and institutional racism in the United States.
| Academic rankings | |
|---|---|
| Liberal arts | |
| U.S. News & World Report[18] | 45 |
| Washington Monthly[19] | 173 |
Soka University of America's ranking in theU.S. News & World Report's 2025 edition ofBest Colleges is tied for 45th overall among "National Liberal Arts Colleges".[20]
For 2021,Washington Monthly ranked Soka 173rd among liberal arts colleges in the U.S. based on their contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service.[21]
In 2015, theChristian Science Monitor listed SUA 2nd on a top 10 list of the most globally minded colleges.[22]
There are no discipline-based departments at Soka University. Instead, the institution has focused oninterdisciplinarity. SUA undergraduates get a bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts, while choosing one of five possible concentration tracks:[10]: 48
All undergraduate students at Soka University of America must study a non-native language. The languages offered are Spanish, French,Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese. The language must be studied for two years, then all undergraduate students at Soka University of America study abroad for one semester in the spring or fall of their junior year in a country whose language they are studying (costs included in tuition).
About 60% of SUA's student body is from the United States, with the other 40% coming from 30 other countries on six continents. In 2021, Soka University was ranked No. 1 in "Most International Students" (highest percentage of international students) among national liberal arts colleges byU.S. News & World Report.[23]
The Soka athletic teams are called the Lions. The institution is a member of theNational Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in theCalifornia Pacific Conference (Cal Pac) for most of its sports since the 2012–13 academic year; its men's & women's swimming & diving teams compete in thePacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference (PCSC). The Lions previously competed as anNAIA Independent within the Association of Independent Institutions (AII) from 2008 to 2009 to 2011–12.
Soka competes in nine intercollegiate varsity sports, including for men, cross country, soccer, swimming and diving, and track and field; and for women, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, and track and field.[24]
| Class of | Total | In-State | Out-of-State | International |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2028 | 43.62% | 76.08% | 70.10% | 26% |
| 2027 | 69.52% | 69.84% | 78.18% | 63.35% |
| 2026 | 56.6% | N/A | N/A | N/A |
For the Class of 2026 (enrolling fall 2022), Soka received 498 applications, accepted 282 (56.6%) and enrolled 129.[26]
Soka University of America does not have a transfer admission program and only accept applications for entrance as a first-year student.[27][28]
Since 2008, full tuition Soka Opportunity Scholarships are available for admitted students whose families make $60,000 or less.[29] SUA was named No. 11 inU.S. News & World Report's 2022 national rankings for "Best Value – Liberal Arts Colleges".[20] According to SUA's financial aid website in 2015, the university was need-blind for U.S. financial-aid applicants.[30]
Between 2005 and 2007, SUA graduated its first three undergraduate classes with an average graduation rate of 90%. As of 2007, 38% of SUA graduates had gone on to graduate programs.[31]
Soka University of America (SUA), originally called Soka University of Los Angeles (SULA), initially operated from 1987 a small ESL (English as a Second Language) school at the Calabasas campus, enrolling just under 100 students. In 1990, SUA announced plans to build a future liberal arts college on campus[44] and plans to expand the facility over the next 25 years to an enrollment of as many as 5,000 students, but ran into opposition from some local residents, theSanta Monica Mountains Conservancy, environmentalists, and government representatives.
Opponents sought to protect the Chumash ancestral site, the naturalhabitats and ecology, and the expansive open spaceviewshed within theSanta Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, and to prevent a development of unprecedentedurban density adjacent toMalibu Creek State Park.[45][46] According to the Los Angeles Times newspaper, the reputation of the Soka Gakkai – sometimes denounced as a cult -, its political power in Japan, and several scandals, also raised criticism against the project.
According to an article by the Los Angeles Times, the SUA "enlisted well-connected lobbyists and advocates in a bid to influence Congress and the Interior Department
In 1992, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), a joint-powers authority associated with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, resorted to its powers ofeminent domain to condemn the core parcel comprising the institution and thereby halted SUA's plans for expansion.[12] The legal debate continued for the remainder of the decade, and the SUA enlisted well-connected lobbyists and advocates in a bid to influence Congress and the Interior Department", says the Los Angeles Times newspaper.[47] Soka University was eventually prevented from developing any expansion plans at the Calabasas property and began looking for alternative sites to build a larger campus.
The graduate school held its first commencement in December 1995, and in the same year SUA acquired a 103-acre site in Aliso Viejo for a private non-profit four-year liberal arts college, and built a $265-million campus. The Aliso Viejo campus opened on May 3, 2001, with a freshman class of 120 students from 18 countries and 18 states. It was given $300-million endowment by the Soka Gakkai Japanese Buddhist group.[48] In June 2005, Soka University received its accreditation from the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).[49]
SUA sold the Calabasas property in April 2005[50] to a coalition of buyers led by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA).[12][51] The former campus is now public parkland, known asKing Gillette Ranch Park, and houses the visitor center for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.[51] In 2007, the Calabasas campus was closed and the Graduate School relocated to the Aliso Viejo campus.[52]
In 2003, two professors claimed they experiencedreligious discrimination,breach of contract as well asage discrimination. Soka University administrators disputed all allegations of discrimination and noted that the majority of faculty and staff are not Buddhist, said there was no evidence of preferential treatment, and said that the institution has never taught nor will it teach Buddhist—or any other—religious practices.[53][54][55] One professor took legal action against SUA based on these allegations, but her case was dismissed onsummary judgment.[56] Another one, Linda Southwell, a terminated fine-arts professor, sued the university, alleging religious discrimination, wrongful termination and fraud. The SUA came to a settlement with the plaintiff, which included a confidentiality clause.[57]
In 2011, Michelle Woo wrote an article forOC Weekly, a local publication inOrange County, California, in which she mentioned possible proselytizing of non-Buddhist staff and students.[58] The article was disputed by Soka University students, faculty, and staff.[59] It stresses that "a quarter of the 20 faculty members (...) a dozen of students (...) and four employees in key administrative and faculty roles have resigned since the campus opened in August 2001".[60]
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