Fledgling College Will Feast on $5 Million in State Budget

Irvine Valley College--the youngest and fastest-growing of Orange County’s eight community colleges--is among the biggest local winners in Gov. George Deukmejian’s proposed state budget.

When the document was unveiled this week, it called for more than $5 million in construction money for Irvine Valley. No other community college in Orange County came close to getting that much.

Irvine Valley, which only became a separate college in 1985 and saw enrollment in 1988 jump 15% over the previous fall, has a growth rate that is about five times greater than the average for the county’s seven other community colleges.

And college officials said this week that current spring enrollment is running a phenomenal 30% ahead of spring, 1988.

“I think the community finally recognizes there’s a college here,” Irvine Valley College President Ronald Kong said Wednesday. “But we’re surprised how fast this college is escalating.”

Irvine Valley College used to be known as the “north campus of Saddleback College.” Saddleback College, about 15 miles to the south, is in Mission Viejo.

The “north campus” was built in 1979, sharing land with groves of orange trees at the southeast corner of Jeffrey Road and Irvine Center Drive. Until the last 3 years or so, the college had a very spartan look.

“I was one of the original faculty members, and back in 1979 all we had was a tiny quadrangle of single-story buildings,” said Terry Burgess, Irvine Valley’s vice president of instruction.

“Look at the campus now,” Burgess said. “The square footage of buildings has already doubled, and more new buildings are scheduled.”

Burgess noted that in 1979, what is now Irvine Valley College opened with fewer than 2,000 students. This past fall, the college had 7,111 students.

“Enrollment growth is a big reason our college is getting more buildings,” said Bob Loeffler, director of college operations. “We’re growing; we’re on a roll.”

Loeffler said Deukmejian’s budget for 1989-90 contains the following for Irvine Valley:

- $2,015,000 for outdoor physical education facilities. The money will be used to build eight tennis courts, four outdoor basketball courts and four sand volleyball courts on 19 acres of the campus.

- $2,466,000 for a physical education activities building. The 12,861-square-foot building is scheduled for completion by the fall of 1991. It will have facilities for weightlifting and aerobics and men’s and women’s showers.

- $235,000 for working drawings for a 19,540-square-foot new gymnasium. College officials said they expect to get construction money for the gym in the next governor’s budget.

- $123,000 for working drawings for a child-development/child-care facility.

- $141,000 for equipment for the college’s newly opened Student Services Center.

- $156,000 for remodeling the college’s library.

The governor’s budget proposed a total of $810,000 for Saddleback College and $630,000 for Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana and Orange. No other community college in Orange County was in the governor’s budget.

Irvine Valley College--which serves Irvine, Tustin and Laguna Beach--has geared many of its programs to the high-technology industries of the Irvine area. Industries often ask the college to tailor special-training courses for their employees, and Burgess said that is a big reason why the college has appealed to students and is growing so quickly.

But the major turning point for the school, Burgess said, was when it became a separate college in 1985.

After heated debate, the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees voted 4 to 3 in April, 1985, to allow the “north campus of Saddleback” to become a full-fledged, separate college. Irvine Valley was christened independent on July 1, 1985.

College officials said it has taken the past 3 years for Irvine Valley to gain community recognition and identity and to build the rapid enrollment growth seen in the past year.

“I meet regularly with officials of other community colleges in California, and none of them--and I mean none of them--can produce enrollment growth figures such as we have,” Burgess said. “Apparently, we’re doing a good job.”