Little Pomp, Considering the Circumstances : Education: Cal State San Marcos turns out its first batch of graduates. Just the right size for a basketball team.

There was no ceremony, no caps, gowns, class picture, or any of the other pomp surrounding most commencements, but Cal State San Marcos did, very quietly, graduate its first students with bachelor’s degrees.

The graduates haven’t gotten their diplomas yet, and they won’t get them until May, which is just as well, actually. Unlike the certificates from other California State University campuses, they wouldn’t have the school’s official seal on them. Mostly because the school doesn’t have a seal yet.

But the fledgling university’s temporary shortcomings are all part of its charm, and the graduates, all five of them, didn’t seem to mind a bit.

“Where else can a graduate of a Cal State university be walking down the sidewalk and somebody says: ‘You’re Margaret McArdle. You’re the reason why we have to develop these graduation forms,’ ” said McArdle, who earned the university’s first bachelor’s degree in psychology.

Until recently, the university didn’t have graduation forms at all.

School officials, who on Wednesday officially announced the number of graduates, who finished their course work last month, said they are pleased with the first crop from the nation’s youngest public university.

“We’re essentially fulfilling the objectives of why we are here, which is mainly to provide educational opportunities to the citizens of North County, and these are the first to take advantage of that. It’s a good feeling,” said Ernest Zomalt, vice president for student affairs.

Cal State San Marcos has already issued teaching credentials, but these are the first bachelor’s degrees the school has granted since it began classes a year and a half ago.

“We will have a graduation ceremony in the spring, and we are confident that the diplomas are forthcoming,” said Elaine Whaley, who earned her bachelor’s degree in English.

“I’m grateful to Cal State San Marcos for the quality of the education that I’ve received, and I think I’ve had some top-notch professors, and I’m real pleased with the experience that I have had there,” she said.

Whaley plans to return for more of the Cal State San Marcos experience this semester by enrolling in the school’s multi-credential program for would-be teachers.

She and McArdle are typical of many of the students at the university, where the average age is 29 and three out of four students are women. In the Cal State system as a whole, just more than half of the undergraduate students are women, and the average age is 23.

The 40-year-old Whaley spent three years at the University of Alaska at Anchorage before dropping out after the birth of her son.

After she and her family moved to Valley Center four years ago, she began taking classes at Palomar College before ending up at Cal State San Marcos.

Now she’s ready to devote the rest of her life to schools by going into teaching.

“It’s sort of an inevitable end to going to school so much,” Whaley said. “I’ve enjoyed school, and I want to make it enjoyable for other people, too.”

Richard Long, who majored in liberal studies, will join Whaley in the teacher credential program at Cal State San Marcos. The 41-year-old Temecula resident was a contractor for 10 years before deciding two years ago that he needed a change of career.

“When you’re 39, you start looking around counting your beans,” he said.

In 1976, he dropped out of Cal State Long Beach after three years of study.

“I had wanted to be a teacher 15 years ago when I was in college, but instead I tried to go out and try to get rich. Two recessions later, I went back to school,” said the father of two.

McArdle, a 51-year-old grandmother living in Rancho Bernardo, began her college education in 1958 at Washington University in St. Louis. After a year, she dropped out to join the Air Force, where she met her husband, and they eventually settled in San Diego County after he retired.

Two years ago, McArdle quit her job at the Miramar Naval Exchange to finish her degree, after “wandering around Palomar College for 10 years and getting 174 units, or some ungodly amount like that.”

With her psychology degree in hand, McArdle plans to enroll in a master’s program in counseling psychology at National University. Her goal is to work with terminally ill children, she said.

“There is an end point to all of this education somewhere, I think,” McArdle said.

Ricardo Scheller, whose degree is in history, also plans to continue his education, either in law or as a graduate student in history.

But until September, when he will start school again, the 27-year-old San Diego native will be working as a special agent for the U.S. Customs Service.

“I just wanted a job that was basically stable right now with the economy the way it is, and something that would let me stay in the area,” said Scheller, who has already been accepted to San Diego State University and Western State University College of Law.

The other graduate was Thomas Bruce of Vista, who earned a degree in liberal studies.

About 70 more students are expected to graduate with bachelor’s degrees this spring, said Betty Huff, director of admissions and records.