The Old College Try : Oxnard Campus Ready for Business Again in Camarillo

Tucked between a beauty shop and a vacant storefront, it’s hardly the institution of higher learning that most educators and community leaders have longed for.

But the new Camarillo Center of Oxnard College, dedicated Thursday, has already signed up hundreds of students for its storefront campus and won praise from civic leaders who welcome the added service for the suburban community.

With a five-year lease and a fresh commitment to Camarillo from the board of trustees, Oxnard College administrators are preparing to launch the upcoming community college semester inside 5,400 square feet of storefront at the Camarillo Village Square shopping center.

It’s just a handful of classes, but the students are just as eager as their Oxnard counterparts, and a lot closer to home.

“I want to take Spanish,” said Lois Miller, a 28-year Camarillo resident. “I had it in high school and I had it in college, but it’s been a long time. I thought about it before, but I didn’t want to drive [to Oxnard] at night.”

Although the fall semester does not begin until Monday, registration lines at the Camarillo Center of Oxnard College have been long and deep for most of the week.

Already, nearly 600 people have signed up for computer, business, English, history and other classes at the campus, more than 10% of the students enrolled at Oxnard College.

“Our goal is to serve the Camarillo community by providing some classes in the general education and vocational areas to meet their needs,” said Kay Faulconer, acting vice president of instruction at Oxnard College.

“We started scheduling classes to be able to offer a variety of classes at different times. There’s certainly a sampling of everything you can take in Oxnard.”

Courses will be held five days a week, with evening classes scheduled Mondays through Thursdays. Almost three dozen sections already have been scheduled, with more classes to be added as demand increases.

The new satellite campus at Las Posas and Arneill roads marks the second time that Oxnard College administrators have offered classes in Camarillo.

The initial attempt quietly folded five years ago, in part because the college was offering its classes at public schools around the city, and there were no daytime courses available.

June Graham is one of two administrators who will oversee programs at the new Camarillo center. She said this reception is much more enthusiastic than the first time Oxnard College moved to town.

“For a lot of people who have lived in this community for a while, this time they see a real commitment on the part of Oxnard College,” Graham said. “We have a computer lab and other resources that weren’t here last time.”

City officials and business leaders said that offering higher education locally would give Camarillo residents more options when it comes to starting college and bettering their careers.

“Much of post-high school education is now adult education, people who are working while they go to college,” Mayor David M. Smith said. “This just makes it easier for residents who are beginning to take courses or working to improve skills for their employment.”

Carol Nordahl, executive director of the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce, said the new campus will provide opportunities for residents as well as spur business in the Village Square shopping complex.

“Having a local center for college-level classes will benefit those people who are currently working and have to fit their class schedules around their jobs,” she said. “The closer to home, the better off they are.”

The new campus will probably not diminish efforts to bring a Cal State campus to Ventura County, which for years has been the most populated county without a public university.

Although the college owns 260 acres just outside Camarillo, there is no money to build the campus and few tax dollars available for design and planning.

In the wake of Gov. Pete Wilson’s plan to close Camarillo State Hospital, a group of local activists is still lobbying to convert that institution to a university.

But all of those efforts mean little to Chris Hidaka, a 29-year-old computer science major who works installing tires.

“I’m not caught up with the ‘90s computers,” he said while in the registration line the other day. “I need to so I can get a better job.”

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FYI

Late registration for classes at the Camarillo Center of Oxnard College continues from 4 to 7 p.m. through Thursday, three days after the start of the fall semester. For more enrollment information, call 388-4772.