CSU Branch to Open With Upper Division Only

In an effort to speed the creation of a Cal State university in Ventura County, the CSU system plans to open the campus offering upper-division courses only, counting initially on local community colleges to provide the first two years of instruction.

Under the arrangement being worked out, Cal State would work closely with the Ventura County Community College District to develop classes that are fully applicable and transferable to a four-year degree program.

The lower-division classes, including general education requirements or core classes, would continue to be taught by community college instructors and offered under the district’s auspices.

The arrangement would continue for five years or so after the university started up or until there were enough students and enough money for Cal State to operate its full four-year program.

The state’s community college system has long worked cooperatively with CSU to provide classes for the first two years of college programs. But the new arrangement sets the stage for a level of cooperation not seen before in Ventura County and rarely seen in the state.

Using the community colleges will save money in the early years of the new campus and will help the long-awaited university come to fruition sooner, said J. Handel Evans, acting president of Cal State’s yet-to-be-built Ventura County campus.

“The university of Ventura County will not come into existence quickly if we have to depend solely on state resources,” Evans said. “So we have to be somewhat entrepreneurial.”

Cal State in Ventura County will also offer graduate and extended education classes in the beginning, counting on revenue generated from fee-based, business-oriented courses in extended education to help fund other university programs.

The delay in offering lower-division courses will allow the university time to concentrate on developing strong programs in upper-division, graduate and business courses, Evans said. But the action is clearly financially motivated.

“If we had millions to work with, I don’t think anyone would hesitate” to begin with all four years, he said. “But we don’t, so we’ve got to sort of creep up on it.”

But, he said, there is no discussion of leaving Cal State in Ventura County as an upper-division institution only.

“This is only where we are concentrating our first attack,” he said.

At Cal State San Marcos in northern San Diego County, the university offered upper-division and graduate courses only from its inception in 1989 until last fall. That system worked to the advantage of both institutions, administrators said.

“We didn’t have to compete with the community colleges for students for a moment, and that opened the door to a strong partnership,” said Carolyn Mahoney, interim vice president for academic affairs at San Marcos and one of the 12 founding faculty at the college. “When we opened our doors to freshmen for the first time earlier this year, we already had built-in good faith.”

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It also gave Cal State the chance to plan the lower-division program more carefully.

“It was critical to the quality of the academic integrity of the institution to have these extra years to plan,” said Mahoney, who is also a member of the statewide academic planning committee for the Ventura County campus.

The only drawback, she said, was that minority students tended to transfer at lower percentages than whites.

“For a diverse population, it is better if you can recruit students directly from high schools,” she said. “You also have more direct control over academic programs.”

Using the community colleges for the first two years of instruction during a new university’s initial years is a good use of resources, said Jere Robings, executive director of the Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers.

San Marcos is the only college in the 22-campus Cal State system to start up without lower-division courses. Cal State Monterey Bay, the most recent college to open, in 1995, began with all four years.

But it was developed on the former Ft. Ord Army base with financial help from the federal government.

The Ventura County campus, which may finally be named on May 14 at a Cal State board meeting in Long Beach, should offer its first classes within the next two or three years, Evans said.

But those few start-up classes will be offered at high school or community college campuses throughout the county or through computers or television, since the planned campus on 260 acres west of Camarillo will not yet have been built.

“We are trying to create as much of a virtual university as possible in the beginning because we cannot get the facilities in fast enough,” Evans said.

About five years after the first classes started up, the present Cal State Northridge satellite campus in Ventura would fold into the new campus and move to the new location, Evans said. About that time, or soon afterward, the university would open its doors to lower-division students as well, Evans said.

Building the campus, which is estimated to cost about $700 million, is a long-term prospect, expected to be stretched out over many years as the financing becomes available.

Joyce M. Kennedy, director of the Cal State Northridge satellite center in Ventura, said her campus has worked cooperatively with the community colleges for years.

“There has been enthusiasm, support and understanding in terms of trying to get the students through the system,” she said. “It has also been a two-way street.”

Not only do the community colleges refer transferring students to the satellite campus, but the Northridge satellite campus also refers students to the community colleges when they are lacking necessary lower-division classes.

Kennedy said her campus holds an annual “Transfer Day” when counselors and administrators from both community college campuses and the satellite campus convene to discuss degrees and graduation requirements to ensure that credits are transferable.

Philip Westin, chancellor of the Ventura County Community College District, did not return telephone calls seeking comment, but Barbara Buttner, director of governing board relations, confirmed that the district was supportive of the university’s efforts.

Although once considered the repository for students who were not really serious about higher education, community colleges are a viable alternative for students beginning college, said Carolyn Leavens, a former president of the Ventura County Economic Development Assn.

She said more students would go on to earn degrees once they have a university nearby.

“Students here in Ventura County don’t see the opportunities,” she said. “But once there is a university here right under their noses, they will see them and go for the gold. And this university is Ventura County’s gold.”