Busy Satellite : Students Crowding Onto CSUN’s Ventura Campus

While fall enrollment has plunged to a 21-year low at earthquake-damaged Cal State Northridge, the school’s satellite campus in Ventura is scrambling to accommodate a record number of students this semester.

Officials at the small campus--housed in an office building off Seaward Avenue--say 1,188 students are registered for the fall, a higher preliminary enrollment than in previous years.

By the time late registration closes Sept. 16, the number of students attending CSUN-Ventura is expected to surge past 1,400, topping last fall’s final enrollment of 1,305.

“We’re the size of a small liberal arts college,” campus director Joyce Kennedy said. “The taxpayers should be mighty happy because they’re getting a lot of bang for their buck in terms of the number of students enrolled here.”

Enrollment at the Ventura campus has risen steadily since its opening 20 years ago, growing from the equivalent of 16 full-time students in 1975 to 605 the past school year.

Last spring, however, enrollment dipped slightly after the Jan. 17 earthquake, despite predictions that the Ventura campus would be flooded with applicants fleeing the heavily damaged Northridge campus.

“If people are going to sit out a semester, they normally take the spring semester off,” she said.

Kennedy said the campus’ growth underscores the need for a four-year university in Ventura County. The state has begun making plans to build a Cal State University campus in Camarillo, but budget cuts have left little money for new school construction.

“It is exceedingly frustrating to have labored so long without notable progress,” Kennedy said.

“Twenty years ago we had a site and no university. Today we have a university and no site,” she added, referring to state-owned land in Somis that was designated for a campus but was later sold.

The swell of students this fall has forced administrators in Ventura to juggle classes, canceling three with low enrollment and adding eight new sections for the most popular courses. Among those added were classes to handle a large overflow of students in a Chicano studies class and a class on teaching physical education.

And for the first time, the campus is offering a two-year credential program for bilingual teachers.

Sonia Hernandez, 24, said she quit her job as an instructional aide in Santa Barbara and moved to Oxnard after hearing about the program. She said she likes the program’s hands-on approach and year of student teaching.

“You can learn just so much in theory,” she said. “With this program, you can go into the classroom and practice what you learn.”

Daniel Torres, 26, said he signed up for the program in Ventura after being turned away from a similar program at UC Santa Barbara, because he missed an application deadline.

“Their goal was to include me in the program, not to keep me out,” he said of administrators at the Ventura campus.

Despite last-minute course changes and confusion over room assignments, students said the first week of the semester has gone off without any major glitches.

The only real problem, they say, has been finding a place to park.

Earlier this week, students arriving for evening classes found the lots around the school jammed and cars lining both sides of Alessandro Drive near the campus.

Arthur Saenz, 22, said he beats the crush by riding his bike from Port Hueneme.

“I like it here because it’s close to home,” he said. “It saves on the cost of living.”

Saenz and about 20 other students met Wednesday morning for a class on the music of Mexico, a course added last week after another Chicano studies class was dropped.

Other students said they preferred the Ventura campus over Northridge because of its size, location near the ocean and the availability of Kennedy and her seven-person staff.

“It’s like having the smallness of a private school and the advantages of a bigger university,” said Laurie Zatkowsky of Ojai, who returned to school this semester to earn a teaching credential.

Student Body Enrollment is growing steadily at Cal State Northridge’s Ventura campus. Figures represent full-time students. The hours of part-timers have been combined to equal full-time status.

Student Body 1987 187 1988 270 1989 376 1990 466 1991 520 1992 553 1993 605 1994 * 600

* Officials expect this number to swell with late enrollment, which ends Sept. 16.

Source: Cal State Northridge