CSU Trustees Agree to Bid on Hospital Site

Cal State University’s Board of Trustees on Wednesday agreed to bid on taking over Camarillo State Hospital after it closes next year, raising the possibility of opening a long-promised campus in Ventura County before the end of the decade.

While reserving a final decision, the trustees said they were sufficiently intrigued with the prospect of saving time and tax dollars by moving into the mental hospital rather than simply waiting for the money to build a campus on a nearby lemon orchard that the university system owns.

“We have an obligation to fully and aggressively explore this option,” said Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, echoing the views of his fellow trustees. “Any time you can inherit an existing facility and avoid the much greater cost of building from scratch, you should seize it.”

Given the board’s initial approval, Cal State officials immediately set to work on its proposal to convert the hospital’s 85 Spanish-style buildings on about 600 acres into a center for a public university and other education-related enterprises.

University officials are scheduled next week to present a rough-draft plan to a task force studying alternative uses for the sprawling hospital after it closes in July.

Gov. Pete Wilson set up the task force after ordering the 60-year institution shuttered because the hospital’s dwindling patient load no longer made it economical to operate such a large facility.

Cal State officials said they would not have an immediate need for the entire hospital, given the projected enrollment of 3,250 students by the year 2005. Nor can the money-strapped university system afford its upkeep.

But the trustees seemed more interested in taking over the whole facility--than merely renting a portion of it--and then leasing unneeded buildings to other schools and university-related businesses to help cover overhead costs.

“It is an intriguing scenario,” trustee Bernard Goldstein said of the university taking control of the hospital complex.

Chancellor Barry Munitz said converting the hospital would cost only half as much as the $80 million to $160 million needed to begin building a new campus. But he emphasized that the trustees must first be comfortable with moving beyond their traditional role of academic stewards to becoming entrepreneurs and property managers.

“We are at a crossroads here,” Munitz told board members. “We can define our role narrowly and traditionally never straying from our academic institutions. . . . Or we can take risks.”

He suggested that if the university pursues the hospital, it could save tens of millions of dollars in construction costs, create a statewide hub for teaching classes through the Internet and develop a needed regional educational center in Ventura County.

“There is more at stake here than providing a university,” trustee Jim Considine said. “The message we got from the board is expand our horizons.”

University officials have already begun discussions with Ventura County community colleges about leasing space to offer lower-division classes, and with local educators about setting up a laboratory grammar school and high school for special-education students.

Although debate over the hospital has been roiling for some months, Cal State officials tried to contain their enthusiasm until they were formally invited to make a bid for the property and received the go-ahead from the board of trustees.

“Now, the work begins,” said Handel Evans, acting president of the campus that has no buildings, but was recently given the name Cal State Channel Islands.

If the hospital plan comes together, Evans suggested that the university could begin classes in some hospital buildings as soon as the fall semester of 1998.

If not, Evans does not envision the new campus opening its first building until the year 2000 or beyond.

“The thing is,” he said, “there’s no money and we would have to wait until [California voters] pass another bond measure. Who knows how long that will be.”