Cost of New University

Re “Senate Panel Backs Funds for Camarillo Cal State Site,” March 26.

Someday--and I hope soon--this world will be normal again: Kenneth F. Starr will be teaching law at Pepperdine University instead of playing Dr. Freud and investigating President Clinton’s sexual history; State Sen. Jack O’Connell will be taking care of the business of San Luis Obispo County instead of looking into the affairs of Ventura County, and someday Los Angeles will have a football team again, as any other great city in America.

In the meantime, thanks to Mr. Starr, the next Congress will have a Democratic majority in both houses and the name of the next president will be Al Gore. And thanks to Sen. O’Connell, Ventura County will be facing bankruptcy--like Orange County once before--when the future bills, arising from building the university on the site of the former state hospital, really hit the county.

And in the meantime, Los Angeles has two good baseball teams, one brilliant but immature basketball team, one excellent soccer team and one hockey team. But no football team.

Of course, there may be a university in Ventura County, but for what price? The price will be huge, in my opinion, but it must be shared by the whole state of California, not just Ventura County. And the decisions in the matter of the university should rest mostly on the shoulders of local officials, especially the county Board of Supervisors.

We may welcome the decision by the Senate panel but approval of the bulk of forthcoming expenses--some $100 million--has not yet been granted in Sacramento. And in this approval or disapproval lies the future of the university. And I hope that Ventura County has real input in this matter.

ADOLPH DONINS, Oxnard