County CSU Campus Receives Trustees’ OK

Taking the final step toward launching a four-year university in Ventura County, Cal State trustees agreed Wednesday to take possession of a shuttered mental hospital in Camarillo and convert it into a college campus set to open next year.

Spurred on by more than 50 university boosters, the Cal State governing board signed off on an environmental study on the conversion project, then agreed to turn the mothballed hospital complex into the system’s 23rd campus if enrollment and financing goals are met.

The board’s action, which received a standing ovation from two busloads of supporters on hand for the decision, kicks off a yearlong push to transform a number of Spanish-style buildings on the property into classrooms and offices to launch the inaugural phase of the campus.

And it sets the stage for creation of a free-standing university on the former hospital grounds within the next decade, capping a 35-year campaign to deliver a Cal State campus to the area.

“This truly is a watershed event for Ventura County,” Ventura business leader Carolyn Leavens told trustees, her voice cracking with emotion.

“We perceive this campus to very literally be Ventura County’s field of dreams,” she added. “It is exactly that and we are here to thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”

Wednesday’s action stopped short of immediately converting the former Camarillo State Hospital into a public four-year college to be called Cal State Channel Islands.

Rather, trustees agreed the 630-acre hospital complex will initially become the new home for the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge, which now holds mostly evening and weekend classes for about 1,600 full- and part-time students.

That renovation project went out to bid earlier this week and contractors are expected to start work by mid-November, officials said.

Under the trustees’ plan, the campus will remain an extension of Cal State Northridge until it attracts enough enrollment--about 6,000 full- and part-time students--and funding to stand on its own.

But Cal State officials said more than anything, Wednesday’s vote signals a promise on the part of the university system to meet the educational needs of Ventura County residents.

“This is a full commitment to the 23rd campus--there’s no turning back,” said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed, who toured the campus this summer. “This is a great gift to the people of Ventura County from the people of California. I don’t know why it took so long but the wait is over. That decision was made today.”

Indeed, the board’s decision comes more than three decades after Cal State officials first targeted Ventura County as the future home for a Cal State campus.

In 1965, Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Sr. signed legislation authorizing a study for potential Ventura County sites for such a campus. Four years later, the state bought 425 acres in Somis for a campus, but sold the land years later after the project stalled.

More recently, Cal State planners proposed a campus on a sweeping hillside parcel at Taylor Ranch north of Ventura, but again local opposition forced CSU officials to back away from that plan.

“We’ve been waiting for this day for so long,” said former U.S. Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino, who was a state senator when the local campus was initially proposed. He was in Long Beach on Wednesday to see the seeds of that idea finally blossom.

“Back then no one could have imagined that one day Camarillo State Hospital would be closed and that a university would take its place,” he said. “I am so pleased. It’s going to be the most beautiful college in California.”

The Cal State University governing board ratified two items Wednesday.

A CSU committee dedicated to campus planning approved an environmental study evaluating the conversion of the hospital complex into a college campus.

A second committee, made up of nearly all 24 members of the governing board, agreed to formally accept the hospital property into the CSU family, sealing the relationship between Ventura County and the university system.

That marked the moment when university boosters got a chance to speak. Sporting red-and-white buttons that read “Yes! CSUCI Yes,!” half a dozen community leaders took turns hammering home the need for the local campus.

They talked about Ventura County being the most populous county in the state without a four-year public university.

And they said despite its relative affluence and top-caliber schools, it lags far behind counties of comparable size and wealth when it comes to shepherding students to college.

“There is a crying need for a four-year CSU campus in our county,” said Allan W. Jacobs, vice president of the Ventura County Community College District Board of Trustees.

“With the opening of a new institution of higher education within the borders of Ventura County, and with resolve on the part of both the CSU and our district to create a seamless transition to this new four-year institution, we can be a model for the rest of the state.”

In some regards the creation of a local campus already has broken new ground.

Not only have CSU planners had to find ways to eventually transform an aging institution into a modern-day college campus, they needed to find the cash to expand the local Northridge center into a full-fledged university.

Toward that end, they are counting on a bill, sponsored by state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo), aimed at generating the cash needed to transform the hospital.

The legislation, which awaits the governor’s signature, would create a special authority responsible for raising revenues from property and sales taxes, selling bonds and providing tax incentives to lure private and public ventures to the property.

“You have before you an agenda item which represents a remarkable opportunity,” O’Connell told trustees. “Turning the former hospital into CSU Channel Islands is an opportunity too good to pass up and a gift which truly has the potential to be another jewel in the California State University crown.”

The Cal State governing board unanimously approved the proposals, drawing a thunderous ovation.

“We welcome Cal State University Channel Islands,” trustee Joan Otomo-Corgel told the crowd. “Welcome to the finest system of higher education in the world.”

Trustee Anthony Vitti, however, was quick to note that there is still plenty of work ahead. Channel Islands will have to continue to scrap for dollars to expand, he said.

“The battle has just begun,” Vitti said. “We can’t lose sight of the fact that this is a major undertaking by the system and we will need everyone in this room to support us. We hope you will be there when we need you.”

Indeed, even before the flurry of handshakes and hugs died down after the trustees’ vote, Cal State officials and community leaders were talking about all that needs to happen before the campus can open its doors in fall 1999.

Aside from the building renovations, CSU officials said the focus will grow even stronger on building the university’s academic program. Ultimately, they say, the academic program will be what defines the new campus and launches it into the next decade.

“I am so proud of the way that this community has come together,” said Laura McAvoy, an Oxnard lawyer who heads the advisory committee for CSUN’s Ventura campus. “We know it will be a lot of effort. But if we stay together, we can do anything.”

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Evolution of a Cal State campus

It has been more than 30 years since Cal State trustees first targeted Ventura County as the future home for a campus. The following is a chronology of the quest to build that university.

1963: Cal State trustees recommend Ventura County as a state university site.

1965: Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown Sr. signs legislation authorizing $20,000 for site acquisition studies.

1969: Cal State officials purchase 425 acres of farmland near Somis to establish the county’s first four-year public college.

1974: UC/Cal State Learning center opens in Ventura with 48 students.

1976: Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. authorizes sale of 425 acres after project stalls.

1985: State allocates $250,000 for new site selection study.

1986: CSU officials target several hundred acres, known as the Lusk property, near the beach in Ventura for the campus.

1987: Gov. George Deukmejian signs a budget guaranteeing $7 million to purchase a Cal State site in Ventura County; Lusk property abandoned.

1988: Cal State governing board targets a sweeping hillside parcel on Taylor Ranch for the new campus.

1990: Acquisition of Taylor Ranch site abandoned after public outcry.

1991: Trustees authorize negotiations to acquire 260-acre site between Camarillo and Oxnard.

1996: In his January budget proposal, Gov. Pete Wilson targets Camarillo State Hospital for closure.

1996 (November): A gubernatorial task force recommends that the hospital be the new home for the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge as the first step toward establishing Ventura County’s first four-year public university.

1997: The Cal State governing board tentatively agrees to take control of the now-shuttered mental hospital and convert it into a college campus, contingent on environmental review and other factors.

1998: The Cal State governing board gives its final approval to plan.