CSUSB students spending a year in France (Aix-En-Provence or Paris) or Quebec (Canada) have been the recipients of the Switzer Scholarship. Since 1999 the Switzer fund has awarded over $143,000 to 24 students.

P. Richard Switzer was a professor of French at CSU, San Bernardino. Switzer specialized in French literature of the 19th century with emphasis on Chateaubriand and Scribe. He was the author of 15 books and contributed to 3 additional books. He read 29 papers at professional meetings and authored 34 articles appearing in 15 different journals. Switzer taught at Northwestern University, the University of Wisconsin (Madison), the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois (Chicago) and the University of California (Berkeley) before coming to CSUSB as the Dean of Humanities in 1970. He served as Dean from 1970-79 before dedicating his energy to the French program where he regularly taught French composition, linguistics, literature, and literature in translation. When Professor Switzer passed away in 1995 he left his estate to fund this scholarship program to encourage CSUSB students to spend a year studying in France.