San Marcos Campus Opens With Fanfare

The classrooms were unlocked, the power was on, the books were on the shelves and the faculty was in place at the newest university in the nation.

Officials at Cal State San Marcos, the first new public university in the state in 20 years, couldn’t be more pleased with the way things went on the first day of class Monday.

“My first impression is that it went off very well,” university President Bill W. Stacy said after a ribbon-cutting ceremony, complete with balloons, a marching band and larger-than-life scissors--borrowed from the Chamber of Commerce--that failed to cut the ribbon.

The university, in the planning for more than five years, started life in an industrial park with 482 students. University officials hope to move into a permanent facility by 1992. The 300-acre campus will be completed over the next 20 years at a cost of $650 million, and is expected to serve 25,000 students per semester.

Aside from the usual symptoms that traditionally accompany the first day of school, such as lost students and jitters, opening day went off with relatively few hitches.

Students and faculty alike shared in the giddiness of the day.

“I feel excited, and I feel that this is where I’m supposed to be,” said Anthony DiAngelis, one of four men enrolled in the 50-student teacher credential program, the fledgling university’s only post-baccalaureate program.

“When you’re starting a new university, there’s an energy. There’s a lot of disorganization here, but that’s fine. . . . It’s part of the spirit of the place.”

Part of the disorganization came from students and, in some cases, staff members trying to find where everything is. A directory of the campus, which was to have been installed by Monday, had been delayed and was not in place.

“I feel confused. . . . Let’s just start walking somewhere,” said one female student, feeling her way around the industrial park, trying to find her world geography class.

In the faculty rooms, too, there was nervousness.

“There’s no way of not being a little nervous, but I don’t feel it too much,” said Cliff Summers, who teaches a biology course about stress. “You’ve got to stand in front of a lot of people, and you’re not sure what stupid thing you’re going to say.

“If I make a fool of myself, I guess I just do.”

Some students compared their first-day experiences with those at other universities they have attended.

“The first day at San Diego State University is spent just finding parking,” said Ted Saulino, who attended SDSU for three years before transferring to Cal State San Marcos.

The smallness of the young university is something for students to take advantage of while they can, faculty members said.

“One of the advantages of a small class is that it can be very personal,” said Margaret Roark, a biology professor whose first class had only four students, two of whom had not yet signed up for it.

“This class will be very special because it will give them a chance to be intimate with their professor. That’s why I encourage them to take their biology classes now, because it’s an advantageous situation,” she said.

Roark does not expect the small-school atmosphere to remain long; university officials project that enrollment will increase 260% by next fall.

Many Cal State San Marcos students, whose average age is 30, are returning to complete degrees--not for professional advancement, but purely for self-satisfaction.

“It keeps you going and active, and it’s challenging,” said Julie Bose, who is in her 60s and returning for her history degree after a 45-year absence from academia.

“I could stay at home and stagnate, but the world’s too exciting to just stand by,” Bose said.

As classes opened, faculty members were still settling into their cubicles. The complex of work spaces, set up just recently, bore a strong resemblance to a maze.

“If you find your way through, you get a piece of cheese at the end,” Roark said.

“Everyday I walk in here and there’s a new cubicle, there’s a new desk or I’m introduced to someone new,” said Len Jessup, assistant professor of business. “The standard operating procedure is that there isn’t one, and you just do your thing.”

Rodney Bell, who set up but did not design the cubicle arrangement, said the logistics of operating the university are going about as smoothly as expected.

“You can’t be too organized when people are still coming in and aren’t sure what they want,” Bell said.

Still, the relatively smooth sailing of the first day of classes resulted from weeks of planning by staff members.

“Last week everyone was literally running like crazy, and I told them the reward came Monday when we see the students,” said Patricia Farris, business services director who arrived at work an hour early to make second and third checks of the classrooms. “And, in a minute, I’m going to go reward myself.”