Misinformation on Mission College

The letter from M. Stephen Sheldon (March 16) surprised me. Mr. Sheldon criticized the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees for its decision to construct the permanent campus for Los Angeles Mission College.

The reason I am surprised is that I know Steve Sheldon not only as a former staff member at Los Angeles Pierce College but also as a competent research professional. That his letter was strewn with out-of-date and inaccurate information about Mission College is both unexpected and unfortunate.

Mission College was founded in 1975, not to make a few leaders happy but because the northeast San Fernando Valley was being poorly served by the Los Angeles Community College District. The current enrollment of our college is over 7,000 students, not the 4,800 students Mr. Sheldon asserts. The enrollment has more than doubled in the last four years, up from 3,300 in fall, 1984.

Mr. Sheldon should know that community colleges generally draw the majority of their students from an area within five miles of the campus. Rather than being five miles from Valley College and eight miles from Pierce, as Mr. Sheldon states, Mission College is actually 10 miles from Valley and 14 miles from Pierce. The primary service areas of our colleges do not overlap.

I am very much in favor of friends of the other community colleges giving support to their favorite institutions, like Valley and Pierce. But frankly, I am getting tired of these individuals engaging in Mission College bashing. We are building functional and attractive educational facilities at Eldridge and Hubbard in Sylmar to serve the northeastern San Fernando Valley. We are growing rapidly and providing a quality education to thousands of students. We are located in an area that currently has the smallest percentage of its high school students going on to college of any area in the Los Angeles Unified School District. We will have plenty of opportunity to grow at our new campus without taking students away from other community colleges.

I just wish that the other colleges’ enthusiasts would send us a bouquet every now and then and stop sending the brickbats!

LOWELL J. ERICKSON

President, Los Angeles Mission College