Santa Obscura University today houses more than 5,000 students, 600 faculty and thousands of prominent and active alumni. Santa Obscura is a college for the world, enrolling students from all 55 U.S. states and 45 other countries. Santa Obscura proudly stands as California's number one private liberal arts institutions.

With a new millennium came a new Santa Obscura. Major renovations were conducted on the campus dormitories, lecture halls, and walking paths to start the next 1,000 years with a fresh look. Since then, Santa Obscura has maintained a modern feel while still holding onto its 140-year legacy.

In honor of his late wife, President of Santa Obscura Dr. Atticus Bibbs opened the doors of the Tiffany Bibbs Butterfly Gardens to the public, a conservatory dedicated to the preservation, growth, and study of California's native butterfly species.

Following the death of Dr. Warwick, Dr. Atticus Bibbs, professor of Classical Philology at Santa Obscura, assumed the office of the President of the California Folklore Society, a title previously held by Dr. Warwick. He proposed that their annual meeting for the CFS be held in perpetuity at Santa Obscura in his honor. The motion received a unanimous vote and the CFS has held their meetings on campus ever since.

On February 9th, 1963, Dr. Sebastián Warwick, head professor of History and Folklore at Stanford University, was visiting a colleague at Santa Obscura when an electrical fire broke out on campus and several buildings erupted in flames. Dr. Warwick selflessly entered one of the burning buildings and saved the lives of 17 people before losing his life to the fire. He was 31 years old. To honor his sacrifice, the renovated building was named the Sebastián Neith Warwick Memorial Center, and it still stands to this day.

Once again Santa Obscura was called upon to aid in the war effort, but this time the call came from Hollywood, California. Santa Obscura's idyllic skyline combined with its bold architecture made it the perfect backdrop for film. Dozens of movies, television shows, and commercials have used Santa Obscura's campus as an atmospheric setting since.

In a generous donation by alumnus Giacomo Chiodini, Santa Obscura was gifted his private collection of Mediterranean antiquities after his death A building was erected in his honor to house the collection and named the Villa Chiodini. Today, the collection has grown to a massive scale and holds the largest amount of Greco-Roman artifacts outside of a museum in the United States.

Santa Obscura aided in the war effort by offering its acres for the development and testing of new transportation technology. This included gas bags, aeroplanes, and alternative methods of sky travel, as well as over-land vehicles and other heavy machinery. The research done at Santa Obscura would never be fully realized, as the war came to a close shortly after the first working prototypes had been created.

Tragedy strikes the university as the devastating 1906 earthquake destroys three campus buildings and results in the disappearances of nine people: three faculty, three students, and three members of the public. These nine people vanished in the aftermath of the earthquake, and their bodies were never found. A memorial was built to remember these lost souls as the Nowhere Nine.

Santa Obscura University played host to the Ghost Club, a London-based paranormal investigation group, the first ever meeting outside of the United Kingdom. Alexander Blake had been a member of the organization and sought to expand its reach to the Americas. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself was in attendance and helped lay the foundations for what would eventually become the Occult Studies department.

Santa Obscura University was founded in 1860 by California mining mogul and philanthropist Alexander Blake to promote scholarly pursuits and encourage a greater understanding of the world at large. The first class of Santa Obscura, numbered at only twelve students, graduated four years later.