Bill Looks to Expand CSU in Ventura : Would Finance Study of Permanent Home for Program There

For nearly two decades, Ventura County officials have lobbied for a four-year state college to serve the county’s rapidly expanding population.

All they could secure was a university extension program serving only 600 students and operating out of rented office space in downtown Ventura.

Now, with minimum effort on the part of local officials, a bill is working its way through the Legislature that would pay for a study of a permanent, expanded campus for the extension program, which is called the University Center at Ventura.

Local officials view it as a first step toward the long-sought state college.

Bill to Be Aired Today

A bill to be aired today by the Assembly Education Committee would provide $200,000 to find a site for a permanent campus and $50,000 for a feasibility study.

Under the bill, the center would continue to be operated jointly by California State University, Northridge, and UC Santa Barbara, and would continue to admit only third- and fourth-year students and graduate students.

The measure, introduced by Sen. Gary Hart (D-Santa Barbara), has already been approved by the full Senate and by the Assembly subcommittee on higher education.

Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Camarillo) predicted the bill would “sail through” the Assembly, possibly without opposition.

He also said it was his “hope and expectation that this permanent off-campus center will eventually become the next CSU campus.”

Expects Assembly Passage

Hart, who introduced the bill at the suggestion of CSU officials, said he expects the measure to pass the Assembly but is concerned about a veto by Gov. George Deukmejian, “especially since the Department of Finance has opposed the bill.”

County Supervisor Susan K. Lacey, who represents Ventura, said development of a four-year state college in the county “has been a top priority as long as I can remember.”

The initial success of Hart’s bill came as a pleasant surprise after the waiting, she said. “Of course, we endorsed the bill as soon as we became aware of it,” Lacey said.

Scott Plotkin, the California State University system’s assistant director for governmental affairs, said the “real impetus to study an expanded center for Ventura County came from Contra Costa County, which has been pushing for a permanent campus for a center such as the one in Ventura.”

Two Other Programs

Bills to authorize studies for permanent off-campus programs in Contra Costa County and northern San Diego County also have been approved by the Senate and are awaiting Assembly action.

Plotkin said CSU officials pushed for all three bills after deciding that, “since we were going to study Contra Costa, it made sense to study Ventura County and northern San Diego County, which have growth profiles similar to Contra Costa.”

Hart speculated that off-campus centers such as Ventura’s “have caught the eye of (CSU Chancellor) Ann Reynolds, who is looking for innovative programs and is anxious to make her mark on the system.”

Lacey described the Ventura center as “better than nothing.” “And having a larger, permanent site for the off-campus center would be better than what we now have,” she said. “But having a full-time university with a library and other services is what we really need and want.”

Joyce Kennedy, University Center director, said the joint operation of the center “has worked out gloriously well, although I continue to encounter skeptics who think the idea is unworkable.”

Founded in 1974

The center, founded in 1974, continues to appeal primarily to part-time students, who account for about 80% of those enrolled, she said.

Most students also work and most classes are from 4 to 10 p.m.

Students are admitted by, and get their degrees from, the main campus in which they choose to enroll, Kennedy said, but course offerings are designed so that students can get all their courses in Ventura County, without traveling to Northridge or Santa Barbara.

She said that 65% of the students are enrolled with the Northridge campus and the rest with the Santa Barbara campus.

“We have no faculty of our own. All our faculty comes from the Northridge or Santa Barbara campuses,” Kennedy said. “We’re one campus where the professors commute instead of the students.”

Bachelor’s degrees are offered in liberal studies, psychology, sociology, health science, anthropology, education, political science and business administration.

Master’s degrees are offered in environmental planning, public health, nursing and education.