Colleges, Cal State Study Partnership Proposal : Education: Memo outlines options for meshing programs at three community campuses with a planned four-year university.

Proposing to break from 35 years of academic tradition, Cal State and local community college officials want to forge a new partnership in Ventura County so their institutions can share students, classrooms, libraries and even faculty.

In a memorandum now circulating at Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura colleges, a Cal State official has outlined options for the community colleges to get closely involved in opening a four-year public university campus in Ventura County in the coming years.

Some of the ideas include setting up a three-year bachelor’s degree program, allowing students enrolled in local community colleges to be automatically eligible for classes at the university, and developing a program for high school juniors and seniors to take college courses.

“Can we share some facilities? Can we share some faculty? Can we share libraries? Can we share housing? These are areas of mutual interest that are open for discussion,” said David Leveille, Cal State’s point man to bring a university campus to the county.

Such an arrangement could help the planned Cal State campus become a reality before its buildings are constructed. Cal State officials are developing preliminary plans for the campus with an opening date in 2000. But the state does not now have the money for its construction, and Leveille is looking to local sources for help.

Leveille said he drafted an agreement for the partnership to stimulate discussions.

So far, representatives have yet to open formal talks, but say they are intrigued with the idea of knitting the closest working relationship between community colleges and a Cal State campus in California.

“We are excited about it,” said James W. Walker, interim chancellor of the Ventura County Community College District. “This is one of those rare opportunities that comes along to set up a model partnership between a four-year public university and community colleges.”

Walker said he is particularly interested in creating a seamless transition for students to move from community colleges to upper-division courses at a state university.

“It’s got so many positives for students,” he said.

The draft memorandum of understanding suggests that college and university officials consider setting up comparable class-numbering systems and cross registration so that students enrolled at one institution are eligible to take classes at another.

It also suggests that college and university officials join with county public school administrators to design curricula for college-bound students, particularly those interested in an accelerated program.

In addition, the memo suggests that community college students could live in student housing at a yet-to-be-built Cal State campus on a 260-acre lemon orchard near Camarillo. Community college administrators believe that will draw students from outside the county.

Gary Morgan, a journalism professor and president of the Oxnard College Academic Senate, said he and his colleagues are intrigued by the idea of joint-faculty appointments and other notions of academic cross-pollination.

Community college instructors, for instance, could teach upper-division courses on topics of special interest--a welcome break from their usual load of teaching basic survey courses.

It could also present them with opportunities to mix with university faculty to conduct research or publish books or scholarly articles.

“For faculty members, it is a tremendously exciting prospect,” Morgan said. “I can’t wait for it to get going.”

Morgan said Leveille’s proposals have been a refreshing change from the usual snub community colleges receive from the University of California or Cal State University.

“Both the UC and Cal State have had a tendency to look down their noses at community colleges,” Morgan said.

Furthermore, he said, faculty and students alike eagerly await the opening of a public university in the county. He said an easily accessible campus should solve the problem of Oxnard College’s low transfer rate to four-year institutions.

“It’s ludicrous,” Morgan said, “but our students have to travel farther than those in any other metropolitan county in California.”