From This Earth a University Emerges

With tractors and bulldozers leading the way, Soka University of America is pushing forward with the $200-million first phase of construction for its campus in Aliso Viejo.

Crews are moving tons of dirt on the 103-acre parcel that the Japan-based university purchased in March 1995. The campus, about four miles from the ocean, is off Wood Canyon Drive and is bordered by Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park.

Phase one--leveling and grading the land--is expected to be completed by July, with landscaping to follow. Construction of 14 campus buildings totaling 600,000 square feet is scheduled to start in December, said Eric Hauber, vice president of academic affairs for Soka.

“It has gone amazingly well,” Hauber said. “We are on plan, exactly as we thought.”

The buildings will be in the Mediterranean style typical of the neighborhood. The first projects to be completed will be four student residences, two academic buildings, a portion of the student center, a library, a recreation facility, reception center and lighted athletic fields.

The university expects to complete the initial building phase by late 1999 and to open the school by September 2001 to 100 students. The plan is to have 500 students enrolled by 2005 and eventually to expand to 2,500 students, which was the enrollment limit stipulated by the county in 1995 when officials approved Soka’s preliminary master plan.

Last week, the Aliso Viejo Assn. Planning Commission unanimously approved the university’s updated master plan.

“We have a tremendous sense of appreciation for the community,” Hauber said of residents’ support for the university. “It feels like home.”

Founded on the Buddhist principles of peace, human rights and the sanctity of life, Soka, which is a Japanese word meaning “to create value,” is an independent liberal arts school.

The south county school will be a sister campus to a university in Hachioji, Japan. That school was founded in 1971 by Daisaku Ikeda, an educator and president of Soka Gakkai International, a global association of lay Buddhists. Soka also has a 200-student affiliate in Calabasas.