Governor OKs Plan to Fund Cal State Ventura Campus

Gov. Pete Wilson boosted efforts Monday to transform Camarillo State Hospital into a college campus, signing a bill that will transfer the property to the Cal State University system and funnel an additional $607,000 to help plan the conversion project.

In signing the legislation, Wilson reversed an earlier decision to slash that money from the state budget.

University boosters said the move represents the strongest endorsement yet of a proposal to turn the closed mental hospital into the CSU system’s 23rd campus.

That endorsement is key as Wilson will be asked to earmark $6.5 million next year to operate the Camarillo campus and turn a number of its Spanish-style buildings into classrooms and administrative offices.

“This is the greatest news,” said state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo), who sponsored the legislation and fought to recapture the $607,000 after it was cut out of the budget this summer.

“I think it demonstrates a real commitment to a four-year public university in Ventura County. And I think it bodes very well for the inclusion of the money that will be necessary to continue the transition of the facility.”

Wilson’s action also won praise from university boosters who are still reveling in last month’s decision by Cal State trustees to take over the hospital property as the crucial initial step to launching Ventura County’s first four-year public college.

Trustees agreed to convert the hospital into the new home for the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge, expanding curriculum and boosting enrollment until it can stand on its own as an independent university, to be known as Cal State Channel Islands.

“This sends a very strong message to the CSU governing board that the state is willing to convert this property into a university,” said Handel Evans, president of the developing Ventura County campus. “I think what you’re seeing is a lot of good planning and a lot of hard work coming together.”

Indeed, local leaders have been working for decades to bring a four-year public university to the area.

Ventura County is the most populous county in the state without a four-year public university. And despite its relative affluence and top-caliber public schools, it lags behind counties of comparable size and wealth when it comes to shepherding students to college.

Last year, Cal State planners began drawing up a blueprint for taking over the 720-acre hospital complex as the best and fastest way to get a university.

That’s why O’Connell was especially troubled this summer when Wilson slashed $607,000 from the state budget that had been earmarked to boost the conversion effort. Wilson siphoned that money from a larger pool for the proposed Channel Island campus, still leaving $1 million for ongoing design and development.

But O’Connell worried that Cal State trustees would get the wrong message about the state’s support for the project. “We were all flabbergasted when that happened,” he said.

Last month, O’Connell tacked the additional funding onto his bill to transfer the hospital property to the Cal State system. “I would say it was timing as much as anything,” he said. “As more information came out, I think the governor and his staff could see the need for that money in Ventura County.”

The additional money will flow to the conversion effort after the new law takes effect Jan. 1.

In the meantime, civic leaders plan to drum up local support to keep the conversion project moving. A community party is planned for mid-November to aid that effort.

Business leaders say they are excited about the prospect of forming partnerships with the budding university, leasing space at the campus and thus helping shoulder the financial burden of operating the school.

“This is a huge step forward in our three-decade quest for a public four-year university to call our own,” said Mitch Kahn, president of the Ventura County Economic Development Assn. “But there’s several million dollars a year that we’re going to need to keep the university running, so we need to continue the momentum.”