Cal Lutheran Plans Major Expansion : Thousand Oaks: The university begins a $30-million effort to enlarge its campus and join the ranks of the Claremont Colleges and other premier private schools.

California Lutheran University, the only four-year college in Ventura County, is launching a $30-million campaign to hoist the institution into the ranks of such private-school powerhouses as Redlands University and the Claremont Colleges.

During the next 10 years, university officials want to nearly double the size of the campus by building a new creative-arts center, a physical education complex, an educational technology center and residence halls on 180 vacant acres north of the university in Thousand Oaks.

Officials also plan to increase enrollment by 25%, to 2,000. And they seek to boost minority enrollment--now about 17%--to about 25%. They hope that by offering better salaries they will attract more nationally recognized faculty members, offer more student scholarships and start a campus radio station.

“We’re at the point now where we want to make California Lutheran University a major institution in Southern California,” said Karsten Lundring, an alumnus who is a member of the university’s fund-raising committee.

Officials and alumni of the relatively young university--founded in 1959--will meet June 12 to outline ways of raising $30 million during the next four years, the first part of a massive fund-raising effort, Lundring said.

He said most of the money is expected to come from alumni and corporate donations. About half of the funds will be used for new buildings and capital improvements. The remaining $15 million will be added to the university’s $5-million endowment, which generates income to pay for scholarships and faculty salaries, officials said.

By contrast, Redlands has an endowment of $24 million and Pomona, a 103-year-old institution that is one of the Claremont Colleges, has $285 million.

Although alumni, community officials and educators have reacted favorably to California Lutheran’s expansion, a few traditionalists have expressed concerns.

“Some wonder how much emphasis will be placed on Lutheran enrollment,” said Mark Zanlandingham, an alumnus and former member of the university’s Board of Regents. “Can we still be a vital Christian institution and serve all cross-sections of people? We’re at a critical stage and we have to make some hard decisions on what we want to be.”

University President Jerry H. Miller said he believes that the university can find a balance. Although the number of Lutheran students at the university is about 40% and dropping, Christian values continue to be emphasized, Miller said.

At the same time, the university is strengthening its reputation as a place where local government and business can turn for advice and assistance, Miller said.

Next year, California Lutheran business students will be working at the World Trade Center in Oxnard. And educators will be meeting with officials at the new Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley to coordinate history and government programs. School officials are considering starting a presidential studies program using the library’s resources, Miller said.

The university also is trying to improve the quality of matriculating students. Students wanting to attend the university this fall will have to have taken more college preparatory classes, such as two years of a foreign language and four years of English. Last year the grade point average of the typical entering freshman was 3.1. Officials hope to raise that to 3.25.

Currently, about 80% of the students come from California, and about 22% percent of those students are from Ventura County.

Next year, it will cost $9,450, an increase of about $900 annually, to attend the school. (By comparison, it will cost nearly $13,000 to attend Redlands University.)

Educators outside the community say they have been carefully watching the changes at California Lutheran. One California State University administrator said it is difficult to accomplish the goals California Lutheran has set.

“Any institution can achieve greatness if that’s its goal and it has the wherewithal to do it,” said David Leveille, the director of institutional relations for the Cal State system.

But Leveille added: “You need a broad base of support from your alumni and you have to attract the best faculty.” And most important, small universities must be able to draw outstanding students away from the larger institutions, he said.

Officials at California Lutheran believe the university can offer students something that larger state schools cannot: more personal attention. The average class size at California Lutheran is about 20, compared to 40 at Cal State Northridge. Some classes at Cal State Northridge have more than 100 students.

“We’re an institution where relationships are important,” said Chris Munoz, California Lutheran’s vice president for enrollment.

But the small-university environment has drawbacks, said student Heather McClure, a sociology major from Utah. Sometimes classes fill up quickly, and the curriculum is limited, McClure said. For example there are no engineering or architecture classes at California Lutheran.

“One of the reasons I came to this university is because it is small,” McClure said. “But sometimes it feels too small.”

University officials say they are looking at ways of enlarging the curriculum and adding more classes as part of the expansion, but admit they cannot offer the variety that larger institutions can.

“That’s the downside,” Munoz said.

Nevertheless, he said: “Cal Lutheran aspires to achieve a level of prominence . . . and quality” as a liberal arts institution.

California Lutheran was incorporated in the late 1950s by the Norwegian immigrants who farmed the area. At first, few outside the church knew about the institution, which was called California Lutheran College until graduate programs were added in 1983.

Slowly, the institution gained a reputation as a good liberal arts university. The graduate schools of business and education also became popular with many Ventura County professionals.

In 1988, U.S. News & World Report ranked the university as one of the best small comprehensive colleges in the country. The magazine ranked California Lutheran 18th out of 167 American institutions with 1,500 to 2,500 students.

Miller, a theologian, attributed the rating to the quality of the university’s instructors, a low faculty-to-student ratio (1 to 15) and a “flagship” program that promotes writing and verbal communication skills.

Through a $13-million fund-raising campaign in the 1980s, the university built a new library and science center and started work on a new chapel.

Hoping that a successful sports program would play an important part in fund raising, officials also switched the university’s athletic division so it could play ball with the prestigious Los Angeles-area private schools, something that caused considerable controversy.

The change came after several losing seasons in National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division II, which includes Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Santa Clara University. California Lutheran officials decided that the university was outranked by the larger schools. As a result, officials suggested switching the university into Division III, which includes Redlands University and the Claremont Colleges, about a year and a half ago.

Most California Lutheran head coaches opposed the move. They said they did not want to lose athletic scholarships, which are prohibited by Division III rules.

But university officials went ahead with the move and gave up the scholarships. As a result, football coach Bob Shoup stepped down after last season.

Despite the university’s expansion, behavior that might be acceptable at larger institutions is still frowned upon.

“There are some people who would like to see this college exactly as it was 30 years ago,” Zanlandingham said. For example, the college administration recently canceled a one-hour program on safe sex after student posters advertised it as National Outdoor Intercourse Day, an attention-getting device that riled some conservative alumni and neighbors.

“We strongly support safe-sex awareness,” Miller said. “But there are certain lines that are crossed at times that are inappropriate.”

Student body President Stacey Reuss said students support the university’s direction. “The changes are good,” Reuss said.

Munoz added: “On one hand, it’s a most exciting time for us. But on the other hand, it is a taxing and draining time. Change and introspection always bring a mixed bag of feelings and emotions.”