College Foundations Rebuilding : Education: Moorpark and Oxnard groups are launching membership drives and putting problems behind them.

The Moorpark and Oxnard college foundations, one tarnished by questionable financial dealings and the other embarrassed by a fund-raising fiasco, are mounting new membership drives after a year of low-profile activity.

“I think that everyone is thankful that the problems in the past are disappearing in the rearview mirror and it’s open road ahead of us,” said Jim Niles, executive director of the Moorpark College Foundation.

The foundations, both reorganized in the wake of problems over the last two years, plan to raise tens of thousands of dollars for new projects by next July, officials said.

“The phoenix will rise,” said Jane Rozanski, an Oxnard College administrator who works with the school’s foundation.

At Moorpark College, a major new project is a pound where students will care for dogs and cats, Niles said. At Oxnard College, new funds will be used partly to pay off an old debt and to pave a faculty parking lot.

Both also offer thousands of dollars in student scholarships and teacher grants.

The two community college foundations, as well as one at Ventura College, are nonprofit groups made up of prominent supporters who donate and solicit money for the colleges.

Moorpark’s foundation has tightened its bookkeeping since mid-1991, when former Moorpark College President Stanley L. Bowers was demoted after being accused of improperly funneling nearly $80,000 through the foundation between 1988 and 1990.

Bowers, who denied any wrongdoing, transferred $51,000 in campus bookstore profits to the foundation, which purchased a country club membership in his name and bought new furniture for his office.

The foundation had operated with little oversight from the three-campus Ventura County Community College District, but now is closely supervised by district trustees, Niles said. “In light of the things that have happened, that is very reassuring for everyone,” he said.

The 12-year-old foundation’s budget is $250,000 this year, compared with about $200,000 last year.

Up to $80,000 this year is earmarked for the campus animal shelter. The animals, saved from death at public shelters, will be trained by students in the college’s Exotic Animal Training and Management Program and made available for adoption, Niles said.

At Oxnard College, the foundation is trying to get out of debt after it spent $100,000 on a fund-raising campaign two years ago that netted only $66,000. About two weeks ago, a foundation board member who requested anonymity donated $25,000 to help pay off the debt.

“It was an early effort to jump-start the foundation,” said district Trustee Timothy Hirschberg, who appointed himself to the foundation board so he could keep an eye on its operations.

The foundation, Hirschberg said, “bit off a little more than it could chew.”

Hoping the campaign would raise $2 million over five years, Oxnard foundation officials took out a $100,000 loan in August, 1990. A consultant was paid about $80,000 and the rest was spent on supplies and brochures.

The $34,000 debt, added to other obligations, left $45,000 due on Sept. 1. Rozanski said the foundation received a one-year loan extension. Rozanski said the foundation has raised about $36,000 so far, including $25,000 from the anonymous donor.

In addition to paying off the remaining $9,000 and the costs of paving a college parking lot, the foundation’s funds will go to scholarships and for special grants to homemakers who are returning to school after having children, Rozanski said.

Oxnard College President Elise Schneider said that despite the fund-raising campaign’s debt, it will eventually pay off.

“The purpose of hiring the consultant was to glean information on appropriate fund-raising drives,” she said. “We really believe we got our money’s worth. It’s just that the economy hit.”

Foundation officials at all three colleges said that the recession has decreased donations.

Niles said the Moorpark foundation has taken in about $40,000 since July, compared to the $50,000 it would normally collect. The reduction is a result not only of the poor economy but also of a minimal solicitation of new foundation members, Niles said.

Ventura College Foundation Director Jim Hibbs said the foundation has lost at least $15,000 this year because 15 corporations that usually donate $1,000 each have refused to contribute because of tight budgets.

The Ventura College Foundation was also tarnished by the controversies surrounding the foundations at the other two colleges, Hibbs said.

Officials at all three campuses said the colleges will increasingly depend on the foundations because of state budget cuts.

In the past, Niles said, college foundations provided campus luxuries such as landscaping, art, an observatory and contributions to a new football stadium. In the future, foundations may be asked to help fund more essential needs, such as buildings, salaries for visiting professors and athletic teams, Niles said.