College District Marks Its Silver Anniversary : Education: Former board members, other dignitaries note changes in enrollment, financial stability of nine-campus L.A. system since 1969.

The silver anniversary of the Los Angeles Community College District--the world’s largest--proved to be a bittersweet celebration Monday.

As former board members and other dignitaries gathered to make tributes and swap memories in the district’s new Downtown headquarters, it was pretty clear that times have changed, not always for the best.

“We enjoyed a public generosity that we’ve not known since,” Trustee Kenneth S. Washington observed wistfully during midday ceremonies marking the 25th anniversary of the district’s formation in tumultuous but prosperous 1969.

A member of both the original and current seven-member elected Board of Trustees that oversees the district--and a high-ranking district administrator in between board stints--Washington is extremely familiar with the contrasts between past and present.

“We had a budget surplus then--the biggest issue for the board to decide was where the line was between free speech and oppression,” Washington said, recalling protests against the Vietnam War and other movements that rocked college campuses nationwide then.

On Monday, after taking a break to sip punch and sodas and sample the chocolate sheetcake in honor of the anniversary, trustees were expected to elected Washington to a one-year term as board president, a largely symbolic post that nonetheless represents a tribute to his tenure.

The nine-college district, dependent on the recession-battered state government for about half its annual funding, has been forced to tighten its belt for several years in a row. The $316-million preliminary budget approved by trustees June 29 was based on the governor’s proposed fee increase--rejected by the Legislature--and cuts in district administration.

The district also is wrestling with falling enrollment, which officials attribute to the state raising community college fees last year and to the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake. Officials estimate enrollment at about 100,000. When the district was formed, by separating from the Los Angeles Unified School District, 92,000 students attended classes at eight colleges, but by 1981, enrollment reached 145,000.

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Other differences between then and now were highlighted in the round of speeches delivered by former board members--including county Supervisor Mike Antonovich and city Controller Rick Tuttle--and by David Mertes, chancellor of the 107-campus California Community Colleges system. Instruction was free in 1969; now most students pay $13 a credit. A majority of students were white and fresh out of high school. Today, the average age is 30 and students reflect the diversity of Los Angeles--37% Latino, 26% white, 18% African American and 17% Asian American.

Trustee Lindsay Conner, who was 13 when the district was formed but whose 1981 election makes him the longest-serving current board member, said he has seen the district go through “the highest of the highs” and “some of the lowest of the lows.”

But because the colleges have provided a “second chance” over the years to more than 1 million students, Conner summed up the district’s first quarter-century as “a great, turbulent success.”