Rally to Celebrate CSU Land Purchase

To celebrate the purchase of land for Ventura County’s first four-year university and to marshal community support, backers of the future Cal State campus will hold a rally Friday at an Oxnard high school.

CSU Chancellor Barry Munitz is scheduled to speak at Rio Mesa High School, where county elected officials and volunteers will gather at 1:30 p.m. Friday to mark the acquisition of the 260 acres just west of Camarillo.

“We are now where we’ve never been before,” said Joyce Kennedy, longtime director of CSU Ventura County. “This is a time of celebration but not for resting, and we must proceed with vigor.”

After years of wrangling over the site, the present location was selected in 1991.

Escrow for the 200-acre parcel, bought from lemon grower Michael Mohseni, and for an adjoining 60-acre plot purchased from Sakioka Farms, closed April 1, said Carolyn Leavens, president of the Ventura County Economic Development Assn.

CSU paid $7.7 million for the two properties.

“This is the first physical evidence that we’re going to have a branch of the state university,” Leavens said. “It also means the beginning of the really hard slogging through of all the work that’s coming next.”

The first and most daunting hurdle is where to find the cash to begin construction.

CSU officials have said that construction might begin in 1999, but Leavens said she would like to get some classes off the ground earlier.

She suggested that local businesses could donate space where upper-division courses could be taught.

Even though the groundbreaking is years away, supporters said it’s a powerful push forward in the effort to give the county its own CSU campus.

“It’s just a glorious time for Ventura County,” Kennedy said. “It’s been a long time coming.”