Irvine Valley College Unveils Expansion Plan

Irvine Valley College’s master plan, unveiled Monday, calls for the purchase of 20 more acres this year to accommodate an expected enrollment of 25,000 students over the next 30 years.

“The college is growing, and we definitely need the added land for expansion,” said Chancellor Richard Sneed of the Saddleback Community College District.

Sneed said the college already has the $1 million needed to buy the land from the Irvine Co. The money comes from Proposition 56, a ballot measure that provides money for college building and expansion. The proposition was approved statewide last November.

The campus is situated in Irvine at Irvine Center Drive and Jeffrey Road. The additional 20 acres to be purchased are now orange groves south of Irvine Center Drive.

The addition would expand Irvine Valley College to a total of 100 acres. Sneed said the college district hopes to complete the land acquisition by the end of next month.

Irvine Valley, only 2 years old as an independent community college, is the youngest of California’s 106 community colleges. Once known only as the “North Campus of Saddleback College,” Irvine Valley became a separate entity on July 1, 1985. Saddleback College, the mother campus, is in Mission Viejo with an enrollment of about 20,200 students.

Irvine Valley, which serves Laguna Beach, Tustin and Irvine, now has about 5,500 students. But enrollment is expected to grow rapidly because the college serves the booming greater Irvine area, Sneed said. “When you read in the newspaper about the projected growth of jobs for Orange County, you can also project the college growth,” he said.

High-Tech Focus

Many of Irvine Valley’s new buildings and expanded academic offerings in the next decade will focus on the high-tech industries that are locating in Irvine, the chancellor said.

Ground was broken this fall for a new, two-story computer sciences building on campus. Completion of the building is expected by November, 1988, according to Tim Mead, director of facilities planning for the college district.

A new physical sciences building is almost completed and is scheduled to open for classes next month, Mead said. When the computer sciences building is completed, the two structures will be known as Complex B, a cluster to be designated as the School of Physical Science and Technology.

The existing cluster of buildings on the young campus will be designated as Complex A, the School of Business and Social Science.

The ambitious master plan envisions four other academic clusters. Complex C, at the heart of the campus, will be the Student Services hub; Complex D would be the School of Health and Life Sciences; Complex E would be the School of Humanities and Complex F would be the School of Arts and Languages.

Sports Facilities

The master plan also calls for an outdoor amphitheater and a physical education area that would include track facilities and a baseball diamond.

While Irvine Valley as a separate entity is only 2 years old, the institution opened for classes in 1979 on only 20 acres.

It opened less than a year after state voters had approved Proposition 13, which put a limit on property taxes, the economic base for most public schools and college districts. Despite uncertain financing, college district officials were pledged to growth, confident that enrollment projections would justify their planning.

Sneed said Monday that Irvine Valley College has indeed met enrollment projections over the years. “We’re just slightly off what was forecast for up to this year, and as we move to the year 2000, I know enrollment is going up,” he said.

One curiosity of the new community college is its name. Technically, there is no geographic area known as “the Irvine Valley.” When the college was seeking a name in 1985, the City of Irvine lobbied strongly to be the namesake. But because the college also serves Tustin and Laguna Beach, district officials compromised on the mythical “Irvine Valley.”

State community colleges Chancellor Joshua L. Smith, in dedicating the new college on Oct. 22, 1985, joked about the institution’s name. “If the sun can have a valley; if dolls can have a valley; if even the shadow of death can have a valley, then surely geologists cannot deny Irvine its own valley,” Smith said.

MASTER PLAN FOR IRVINE VALLEY COLLEGE

College, as unveiled Monday, shows existing buildings in the northern past of the 80-acre campus, fronting Irvine Center Drive. The southern portion of the campus shows buildings proposed over the next 30 years. The 20-acre block of land southeast of the campus shows no buildings and would be used for parking and future expansion. The Saddleback Community College District is buying that 20-acre site this year from the Irvine Co.