Drive to Raise Funds for Cal State Campus Begins

Stepping into the bold new world of public-private partnerships, California State University leaders Monday officially launched a campaign aimed at generating the cash needed to build Ventura County’s first public four-year university.

With the inaugural phase of the college set to open Aug. 30, officials swore in seven members of a special authority that will serve as the landlord and financial manager for the fledgling campus under development at the shuttered Camarillo State Hospital complex.

The panel, a potential model for university development across the state and the nation, will be responsible for raising revenues from property and sales taxes, selling bonds and providing tax incentives to lure private and public ventures to the 630-acre property.

“I think this exemplifies, underlines and really reinforces the terrific partnerships we have developed between the university and local city and county offices,” said Cal State Channel Island President Handel Evans, a member of the new panel.

Signed into law last fall by then-Gov. Pete Wilson, the California State University Channel Island Site Authority Act established the makeup and mission of the seven-member panel.

In addition to Evans, the members are CSU trustee Laurence K. Gould Jr., former trustee Jim Considine Jr., CSU Vice Chancellor Richard P. West, Camarillo City Councilwoman Charlotte Craven and Ventura County Supervisors Kathy Long and Frank Schillo.

The panel is not needed to launch the inaugural phase of the campus, because lawmakers already have earmarked $16.5 million to convert the former hospital into the new home of the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge. Rather, it is needed to generate the $25 million to $50 million necessary to expand the Northridge center into a free-standing university.