Panel Votes in Favor of Channel Islands Campus

Cal State trustees voted Tuesday to designate Cal State Channel Islands the 23rd campus in the university system, a decision that would allow the hiring of key academic staff and shave at least two years off the opening of a free-standing public university near Camarillo.

The action, handed down by Cal State’s educational policy committee and subject to ratification today by the full governing board, is contingent on several factors, including the ability to draw an additional $13 million a year from the state budget to operate the campus.

If those financing goals and the other criteria are met, the campus could open as early as August 2002. The campus is under development at the closed Camarillo State Hospital complex.

If the committee’s action is upheld, it would represent a dramatic shift in strategy for Cal State officials, who had envisioned a slower evolution for the campus. The university was to start as the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge and grow to the point where it could stand as an autonomous institution. Cal State officials at the time said they believed that would happen in 2004 at the earliest.