Hands Off College District Funds

Your editorial “Inventing a University” (Nov. 2) spoke optimistically about the innovative programs proposed for the new CSUCI campus at Camarillo. But your editorial failed to state why these programs are worth the use of up to $20 million in funds currently slated for the education of the almost 30,000 students on the three campuses of the Ventura County Community College District.

The trustees of the VCCCD made it plain in a letter to the CSU trustees that they intended to rent office space and up to 50 acres of parking at the CSUCI campus. Even with the addition of some classroom space, how can the use of these funds justify depriving the current and future students of Moorpark, Ventura and Oxnard colleges of the programs they have come to college to study?

Your editorial quotes CSUCI Senior Academic Planner Robert Peyton as saying that the Cal State system is “dedicated to graduating truly educated people with critical-thinking skills .”

What kind of critical thinking concludes that it is the job of the community colleges to fund a state university, instead of preparing students who can go to any state university they choose?

STEPHEN DOYLE

Moorpark