Mission’s Early Days Recalled at Campus Dedication

In the early days of Mission College, Fred Obrecht’s English class met in a rented classroom next door to the Tender Glow, a bar in Granada Hills.

“The class always had to finish its discussion by 8:15 because that’s when the band started playing,” Obrecht said. “One night, two gentlemen who were well-fortified walked into the classroom. They thought it was extremely funny that they were in an English class instead of in a bar.”

“They stayed awhile and finally left,” he added.

Obrecht and others--community members, educators and elected officials--who played a role in founding Mission College gathered Thursday to dedicate the college’s new campus at 13356 Eldridge St. in Sylmar and to swap stories about the early years and the obstacles they eventually overcame.

About 450 people attended the program at the $25-million, 22-acre campus, which opened for classes Sept. 9.

Since its founding in 1975, the college had held classes in rented storefronts and school classrooms throughout the northeastern San Fernando Valley.

Allan Mundsack, president of the Academic Senate, recalled that when he arrived to teach his first algebra class at Verdugo Hills High School, he found the gates locked. “So, I climbed over the fence,” he said.

Eventually, Mundsack said, two students arrived.

Obrecht said only one student showed up at the instructor’s first American literature class. Not knowing what else to do, Obrecht sat down beside the student and delivered his lecture.

Herbert Ravetch, founding president of Mission, drove 3,324 miles from his home in Maine to be at Thursday’s dedication. Ravetch, now retired, recalled some of the names suggested for the college, including Floating Hills, Valley Hills, The People’s College and Opportunity College.

He said that when the campus opened Feb. 3, 1975, he feared that no one would come. “But come they did. We’d ended up with 1,200 students that first semester.”

Charles Dirks, a founding algebra teacher at Mission, said the northeast Valley once had a community college--San Fernando Junior College, founded in 1914--but it was later disbanded. Dirks said he volunteered to come to Mission because the dream of having a community college in the area “was forgotten for a quarter of a century” and he wanted to help rekindle it.

Today, the college’s enrollment has reached 7,520 students, up 26% from fall of 1990. Already, it is overcrowded.

Julia Wu, president of the Los Angeles Community College District board, pledged the district’s support for expansion plans outlined by Mission President Jack Fujimoto. “Even though you have laid a solid foundation for the college, you can’t stop here,” Wu said. “I challenge you to continue to dream. . . .”