CSU Head Reiterates Support for Local Campus

In his final six months as chancellor of the Cal State University system, Barry Munitz said he wants to solidify plans to transform a closed psychiatric hospital into a fledgling four-year university.

“It will be one of my top priorities to clarify what we still need to do to make CSU Channel Island a reality,” Munitz said Friday through a spokeswoman. “The board of trustees’ directive is to stay the course. The exact momentum we have now is how we will proceed.”

His comments came one day after an announcement that he will leave the 22-campus Cal State system in January to head the prestigious J. Paul Getty Trust.

A staunch backer of the plan to convert the shuttered Camarillo State Hospital into a university, Munitz said he has no plans to abandon it now. But, he added, upcoming meetings detailing the conversion plan and the associated costs will be pivotal.

The highest hurdle will come in September, when Cal State trustees are slated to vote on the proposal to locate a full-service university--the system’s 23rd campus--on 700 hilly acres south of Camarillo.

“Barry’s attendance at that board meeting is very important to me,” said Handel Evans, president of the planned campus that will be called Cal State Channel Islands. “[The trustees] will listen to him very carefully and with great respect. Let’s put it this way: If he were to say no [to the plan], it would be over. If he would say yes, people would have to come up with some very good reasons why not. That respect is worth a lot.”

Cal State trustee Jim Gray of Long Beach said financial analyses and community and state levels of support--not a particular chancellor--will determine the campus’ fate.

“I don’t think [Munitz’s departure] is going to have a major effect in either direction,” said Gray, who remains undecided on the issue. “And, of course, the chancellor is here through the end of the year, and our decision will happen within that time.”

With his emphasis on public universities that can pay their own way, Munitz has been a strong proponent of private-public partnerships such as the ones planned for Cal State Channel Islands.

Carolyn Leavens, a longtime university booster, credits the outgoing chancellor with kick-starting a long-stalled plan to bring a university to Ventura County.

She called Munitz a “tremendous supporter” who helped sway the opinions of some trustees who have worried about starting another campus from scratch in tough budgetary times. She fretted about Munitz’s successor, having known previous chancellors with far less enthusiasm for a Ventura County campus.

“We don’t have a clue what we’re going to get,” Leavens said. “But even if the next chancellor is a little halfhearted about it, I think we’re on the way.”

In his six-year tenure, the charismatic Munitz has been a strong proponent of opening a campus in Ventura County, the state’s most populous county without a public university.

He assigned Evans to the task after Evans was the point man who helped turn the shuttered Ft. Ord Army Base into Cal State Monterey Bay. Most recently, he has thrown his support behind a plan to convert the closed psychiatric hospital into CSU Channel Islands’ idyllic campus.

A local Cal State university has been planned for three decades, but setbacks always arose. Using the former Camarillo State Hospital became a viable option when Gov. Pete Wilson last year announced its closure.

As envisioned, the university would turn to unconventional ventures to offset the estimated $40-million to $45-million start-up cost.

With more buildings available than initially needed, many of the 85 empty structures would be leased to education-related enterprises and other ventures.

One proposal is to use a portion of the sprawling campus as a magnet public school that would draw students in kindergarten through the eighth grade. Another is to construct a 1,200-unit retirement community.

Plans call for Cal State Channel Islands to start accepting students as soon as January 1999.

If trustees reject the proposed Camarillo State Hospital conversion, Evans said, Cal State officials will continue to pursue plans for a campus on a university-owned, 260-acre lemon grove in Camarillo. “I believe there is a commitment to put a university in this area,” Evans said. “If we don’t get the hospital, we’re not going to pack up and leave. We’ll just do it some other way.”