A SPECIAL REPORT: COLLEGE LIFE

HELPING HAND: What does it take to help community college students make the jump to four-year universities? At Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, a lot of hand-holding, including reminder calls to students at home the day before their appointments with recruiters and a transfer center packed with admissions information. The program has been honored by the state’s chancellor’s office.

COLLEGE COPS: If you drive past Mission College in Sylmar and see a cluster of LAPD squad cars, don’t think the worst: it’s just The Law in the classroom. Mission has more than 50 LAPD employees enrolled in a special adult education program leading to associate of arts degrees. The connection began with now-abandoned plans to build a new Police Academy in the San Fernando Valley. The LAPD personnel are scattered among regular working adults in the college’s Project Adult College Education (PACE) program.

SWEET OFFERINGS: Offer a piece of Jolly Rancher candy and students at Cal State Northridge will beat a path to your door. That’s what CSUN student government senator Scott Blugrind hoped by pitching a tent on campus last Thursday and today to pass out candy and information about this week’s student election. The main ballot item: a $49-per-semester student fee increase to support the campus’ intercollegiate athletic programs.

BIG BUCKS: Neil Yoneji, the new chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, has a good reason to be smiling. Yoneji will earn $125,000 a year, 33% more than he was paid last year as vice chancellor. But other districts pay more--Saddleback Community College District in Mission Viejo was the highest, paying $145,000.

BOOM AHEAD: Amid all the talk about dropping college enrollments in California in recent years, is the nation’s higher education business on the decline? No, says the U.S. Department of Education, which predicts enrollments will increase from 14.6 million in 1992 to 15.9 million by 2004.

WEATHER: Sunny and breezy with highs to lower 80s. B7