CSUN Branch in Ventura Is Bracing for Influx : Education: Officials expect record high spring enrollment because of students displaced by Northridge earthquake.

Spring enrollment at the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge is expected to reach a record high as students displaced from earthquake-damaged classrooms at the college’s main campus drive north for instruction, officials said Thursday.

So far, about 1,500 people have inquired about courses in Ventura following the 6.6-magnitude Northridge earthquake that heavily damaged portions of Cal State Northridge. That is nearly three times the number of students who normally enroll at the tiny Ventura satellite campus for spring classes, said Joyce Kennedy, director of the Ventura site.

Classes begin Feb. 14, but students can register for Ventura courses until March 4.

About 30% of the callers said they are students who live in the San Fernando Valley who are considering commuting to Ventura to take classes that are temporarily unavailable in Northridge.

But most are Ventura County residents who normally commute to Northridge for classes. They said they may opt instead to receive instruction in Ventura, Kennedy said.

Cal State Northridge’s computerized registration system is still down, and college administrators do not know precisely how many will end up driving to Ventura. But administrators are planning for an influx of at least 200 new students, Kennedy said.

Spring enrollment at the Ventura campus usually hovers at about 530, Kennedy said. “If what we predict comes true, our spring enrollment will the highest ever,” Kennedy said.

Administrators have already added two courses and reassigned faculty members to the Ventura campus’ spring schedule in preparation for the reverse flow of students, Kennedy said. More courses may be added as the spring semester start date approaches, she said.

A seven-story complex of faculty offices and classrooms at Cal State Northridge sustained heavy damage during the Jan. 17 earthquake, disrupting plans for spring classes scheduled to take place there. A newly built parking structure was destroyed and other buildings on campus have also suffered severe damage, officials said.

But the quake has also taken a psychological toll of some students and their families, Kennedy said.

“I’ve had parents call and say they are concerned about another earthquake,” she said. “Or their daughter is very nervous about staying on the Northridge campus. And they want to know what we have available.”

Students have called from as far away as Santa Clarita and Palmdale to find out if the Ventura satellite will enroll them, Kennedy said. Some are desperate to get a class, especially if they are nearing graduation, she said.

“We say, ‘You’re welcome to come. But let me tell you where we are. We are out by the ocean, near the Oxnard Plain,’ ” Kennedy said. “And they say ‘We don’t care. We’ll take the back roads.’ ”

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Two business courses have been added to the Ventura site’s spring schedule to handle the overflow, Kennedy said. Although classroom space and parking at the building on Allesandro Drive have always been tight, the campus will be able to handle more students because the added classes will be taught during the day.

Most Ventura campus classes are given at night, geared toward working adults pursuing upper-level classes to complete a degree.

Kennedy said the situation is expected to last only one semester, and that the Ventura campus won’t see any budget windfall as a result of the higher enrollment. The students will continue to be registered at the main campus, with their fees going to the Northridge site, she said.

“It’s like taking in relatives who are down on their luck,” Kennedy said. “They won’t be here forever, but we will do all we can to help them.”

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Quake damage to Cal State Northridge is not expected to delay plans for construction of a permanent Ventura County campus, said Colleen Bentley-Adler, a spokeswoman for the California State University system.

Negotiations to buy a 230-acre tract of land west of Camarillo are proceeding, and there is no indication that any money set aside for that purchase will be diverted to fix quake-ravaged buildings, she said.

“It shouldn’t have any impact, because the majority of funds to repair the buildings in Northridge will come from the federal government,” Bentley-Adler said. “And the rest will be paid from the state’s Office of Emergency Services.”

At the Ventura campus, which suffered no damage from the earthquake, the biggest headache from the relocation of classes will be dealing with logistics, Kennedy said.

Financial aid has been delayed and academic record-keeping has been hampered by the loss of Cal State Northridge’s computers, she said. Even figuring out how to get textbooks from Northridge to Ventura for the new classes poses a challenge, she said.

Joe Launie, a professor in the business department at Cal State Northridge, said the change of class sites will make him a “gypsy.”

Under the new schedule, he will continue to teach one class at Cal State Northridge, but is assigned to instruct another at the Ventura campus. Building inspectors have told him he may not be able to enter his office in Northridge, so he must carry his lesson plans, records and books in his car while shuttling from one campus to the other, he said.

“I will have to carry my office in my car, essentially,” he said.

There is one bonus: Launie lives in Camarillo, so his commute to the Ventura campus will be shorter. And after 28 years of teaching, Launie has a broader view of the process of education.

“A university isn’t a physical plant or buildings or computers,” Launie said. “Those things just aid us. I could sit out on the end of a log and have the students sit on the lawn and we could still function.”