CIIS at a Glance

Established in 1968
Accredited by the Western Association of Schools of Colleges (WASC)

Degree Program Enrollment

1,279 total degree program enrollment headcount
5% undergraduate
53% master's
42% doctoral

Student Body as of Fall 2009

1,302 total headcount
72% women
22% students of color
6% international students

Faculty

71 core faculty
49% women
23% faculty of color

Library

Over 43,000 books (both printed and electronic)
Over 300 print journals; nearly 9,000 electronic journals
Nearly 1,700 audio and video titles

Alumni

4,024 undergraduate and graduate alumni

Did You Know?

• Dr. Haridas Chauduri, a professor of philosophy from India, founded CIIS in San Francisco in 1968. The Institute began as the educational branch of the Cultural Integration Fellowship.

• CIIS’ Integral Counseling Psychology department, started in 1973, was the first of its kind in the world. The department emerged from Dr. Chaudhuri’s insight that there is a need to connect psychology and spirituality.

• Alan Watts was one of the original faculty members of the American Academy of Asian Studies, a San Francisco institution that laid the foundation for CIIS. Watts also participated in the lively colloquia with Haridas Chaudhuri that helped spark the San Francisco Renaissance in the early 1950s. Those attending the colloquia included Gary Snyder and other Beat Generation poets. In 1991, Alan Watts’ personal library was donated to CIIS by the San Francisco Zen Center and the Alan Watts Society for Comparative Philosophy.

• In 1997, CIIS co-sponsored a conference on Peacemaking: The Power of Nonviolence with the Dalai Lama as keynote speaker. Participants included Nobel Peace Prize recipients Rigoberta Menchu and Jose Ramos-Horta.

• Recipients of honorary degrees from CIIS have included Cecil Williams, pastor of Glide Church; Janice Mirikitani, poet and founding president of the Glide Foundation; and Joseph Campbell.