Cal State Will Open Branch at Saddleback

Cal State Fullerton officials confirmed Tuesday that the university has decided to open a satellite operation on the campus of Saddleback College in Mission Viejo next fall.

University President Jewel Plummer Cobb, in a memo to the faculty this month, said, “Saddleback College has invited CSUF to locate our satellite on its campus, and we have accepted.”

Until now, community college graduates in south Orange County who wanted to pursue a Cal State bachelor’s degree had to commute to San Diego or to Fullerton, 35 miles north of Saddleback College.

The satellite will offer junior and senior-level courses and is expected to attract about 300 students the first year. Growth to 2,500 students is projected over the next five years.

Patrick Wegner, an associate vice president at Cal State Fullerton, said: “Our ultimate goal at the satellite is to make it possible for a student to be able to graduate (with a bachelor’s degree) without having to come to the Fullerton campus. This will not be possible for a few years, but that is our goal.”

Saddleback has about 20,000 students, and most of those who transfer to a four-year university already choose Cal State Fullerton, Saddleback College President Constance Carroll.

Cobb said the satellite’s first-year cost would be about $596,000, which will be requested from Sacramento in the next fiscal year. Formal approval of the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees also is necessary, but the board has actively supported the idea.

According to the California Postsecondary Education Commission in Sacramento, few of the state’s 106 community colleges have satellites of four-year universities on their campuses.

Support of the Proposal

Cal State Fullerton, with an enrollment of more than 24,000, has long proposed a branch in rapidly growing south Orange County, and last winter the Academic Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of the idea. The California State University system Board of Trustees subsequently added its support to the proposal.

A sticking point had been the location. Proposed sites initially ranged from Irvine in the north to San Clemente in the south. The Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel also was once mentioned as a possible location.

In February, Cal State Fullerton officials visited the Saddleback College campus. The community college offered to rent the older existing buildings on 22 acres of its lower-elevation campus. Because of new buildings on Saddleback’s upper-elevation campus, the older buildings were vacant, officials said. The rental agreement is still being worked out, officials said.

Richard Sneed, chancellor of the Saddleback Community College District, said the buildings will be remodeled by the fall for the satellite campus. “In the future,” he said, “as the satellite grows, we would be thinking of finding ways to build new structures for the satellite and renting or leasing them.”

Wegner said the initial courses offered at the satellite will be in business, teacher education and credentialing and general education. He estimated that about 20 teachers will work there.

President Carroll of Saddleback College said Tuesday that the new satellite will be “a much needed service for our community.”

While UC Irvine is relatively close to most south Orange County students, the stiffer entrance requirements exclude many high school graduates. UC campuses, by state law, can admit only the top 12 1/2% of the state’s high school graduates. California State University can admit those in the upper third of their high school graduating classes.