Instructors Criticize Plan for Satellite Campus : Moorpark College: Teachers, beset by funding cuts, say current needs must come first. District says it’s only looking to the future.

A proposal to open a Moorpark College satellite campus in the Conejo Valley by 2000 is drawing criticism from some faculty members as too costly.

District administrators and some trustees say the idea is just one of many options the district is considering as it looks to the future.

But in a system where the recession has already cut funding to the bone, even the possibility of new financial commitments is not taken lightly--especially by a faculty resentful that it has not seen a raise in nearly three years.

“I’ve been trying to get staffing for the women’s center here, and the answer is always, ‘No money, no money,’ ” said Deborah Ventura, a Ventura College English teacher and one of the directors of that campus’ women’s center.

“When we heard about the possibility of a fourth center, people were beyond anger, to the point where they were incredulous,” she said.

Faculty members insist the district must find more money for the facilities and people it has now before it directs energy toward the future. But administrators and Trustees Pete Tafoya and Gregory P. Cole say the need to prepare for the future must be considered separately from the need to fund the present.

And they say they have the charts to prove that the future is becoming an urgent issue.

This fall, after gathering population data and crunching numbers, a staff report concluded that “the Ventura County Community College District anticipates a continued increase in student demand of its facilities through the year 2010.”

Although registered drivers have been leaving the county in greater numbers than they are arriving, the district report says births and foreign immigration more than make up for the departures.

The report also states that based on pre-1993 growth trends, the east county population will continue to rise at a higher rate than in the west county. With most of this growth affecting Moorpark College, the existing campus will be hard-pressed to handle increased student enrollments after the year 2000, according to the report.

Jeff Marsee, the district’s vice chancellor for administrative services and one of the authors of the report, said these trends leave the district with at least three options: Do nothing and risk turning away future students for lack of space, expand the facilities at Moorpark College, or open a fourth facility, possibly in the Conejo Valley.

The problem with expanding Moorpark College, administrators say, is that they are loath to let the institution--now serving about 12,000 students--enroll much more than 15,000 students for fear it would destroy the intimacy that distinguishes community colleges from larger universities.

Although the report also cites the possibility of building another, full-fledged campus--the fourth after Ventura, Moorpark and Oxnard colleges--district officials say the more probable option would be opening a satellite center, perhaps within an office building, that would direct students to Moorpark College for athletic facilities.

This leaves administrators toying with the idea of a satellite campus.

Marsee emphasizes that any site opening would be at least five years away, given all the planning that must be done.

For now, however, the district has assembled a commission whose members include the county district attorney and the superintendent of county schools. The panel will review the options and make its own recommendations to the district.

Still, some faculty members say the subject makes them skittish.

After administrators cut classes to save money and state officials raised tuition to generate funds, enrollment at district colleges this fall plummeted by 12% when contrasted with the same period last year. If the trend continues into the spring, the district could lose state money as its yearly student enrollment total dips below the number needed to receive maximum funding from Sacramento.

The district’s student enrollment has soared above that maximum figure so regularly that administrators now rely on maximum funding as the base amount they expect to receive from the state.

Even as the district scrambles to replace classes and lure more students back to the campuses, it is faced with fraying infrastructures at the three colleges. Libraries need more books, sidewalks could use repaving, computers are breaking down or in some cases becoming obsolete.

Supplies are in great demand. Science teachers complain that their laboratories lack equipment. Various student programs and counseling centers run on shoestring budgets because administrators say there isn’t money to go around.

And finally, the teachers themselves complain their salaries need a monetary injection, if only to keep pace with inflation.

In this kind of atmosphere, said George Arita, a biology teacher at Ventura College, any discussion of new sites is “ridiculous.”

“We can barely support three campuses, much less four,” he said. “They shouldn’t even think about it.”

Adding to the administration’s woes is a widespread sentiment among teachers that district officials always hide anything really important from the faculty.

District officials say this is far from the truth.

According to Marsee, administrators first discussed the issue publicly in a December, 1992, board workshop attended by some faculty representatives.

Faculty members have not been involved with the planning process since then, Marsee said, “because there’s nothing for them to be involved with right now. We’re just at the beginning.”

Some trustees say they don’t expect action for years.

“I would be looking at five years to make a decision,” Trustee Timothy Hirschberg said. “I don’t think we’re at a point now to make a decision. With the decline in enrollment we’ve seen . . . I don’t think we should rush into anything.”

Trustee Allan Jacobs also said he was far from ready to take action on such a large expense in the near future. “Building a new campus is a very expensive process,” he said. “It would severely drain our budget. I’ve never discussed it.”

But Marsee insists that no one is “rushing” into anything.

“We’re just trying to anticipate what we’ll need by the year 2000,” he said. “We’re a much more complex organism than just a classroom and a teacher.”