State Hospital Site Ideal for Soka, CSU

* Why not put Soka University on Camarillo State Hospital’s site?

Soka University of America had wanted to build a 3,400-student campus on its King Gillette Ranch site in the Santa Monica Mountains. The state of California wants this property for a headquarters for the park system. But the state has a ready-made campus at Camarillo State Hospital. Why not exchange the two?

Soka University could put many more students on the Camarillo State Hospital site than the currently allotted 650 students at the Soka site. Soka would save millions on new construction costs.

Residents around Camarillo State Hospital would have none of the new campus traffic--most of the students would live on-site.

And the state of California would have a ready-made park headquarters--King Gillette Ranch.

VINCE CURTIS

Assistant director,

Save Open Space

Oak Park

* As someone who still wonders why my city turned down the opportunity to host the new Cal State campus, I hope the residents of Camarillo ignore the opposition and welcome the CSU system to Ventura County.

I can think of no other “industry” that is cleaner or has a larger economic impact on a region than a university. Think long term for a minute--several years ago, a prominent Ventura apparel maker opposed a CSU campus in Ventura. After stopping CSU here, the same firm moved 70 of its jobs to Reno, so that now we have fewer well-paying jobs in town and no university.

Certainly the state hospital or the proposed California Youth Authority facility would generate less traffic. But in the long term, mental health budgets are going to shrink, while the inmates housed at a new detention facility are likely to become more and more dangerous.

Universities in California, on the other hand, grow and hire people with an average pay of $36,000 a year with excellent benefits. Anyone concerned about traffic, neighborhoods, and a university campus need only to drive through Berkeley this time of the year to see traffic management can and does work.

Come on, Ventura County--don’t blow it again!

WILLIAM P. McGOWAN

Ventura