CSUCI Head Vows Local Applicants to Get Priority

Responding to a new Cal State policy on admissions, Channel Islands President Handel Evans restated his determination to offer priority entry to local students when the Ventura County campus opens.

Breaking from a long-standing commitment for each campus to accept any student who qualifies, CSU officials announced this week that a handful of crowded campuses are making plans to reserve admissions for local residents.

But Evans said Tuesday he has intended all along to offer priority admission to students in this region. He said he wants to craft agreements with high schools and community colleges from Santa Maria to Santa Monica to ensure that area students who want to attend the planned Cal State Channel Islands campus--and are qualified to do so--get first shot at admission.

“We have always said we would accommodate our own students,” said Evans, noting the Camarillo campus was approved specifically to address local educational needs.

“Really, that’s why we are here,” he said. “It would be counterproductive to go out and recruit students from elsewhere when we have the opportunity to provide access to higher education to local folks.”

Indeed, university boosters have long pointed to the lack of educational access in Ventura County when advocating the need for a public, four-year university.

Despite its relative affluence and top-caliber schools, the county lags far behind counties of comparable size and wealth when it comes to shepherding students to college.

It sinks to the bottom third of the state’s 58 counties when comparing the number of students who make their way to four-year universities. And unlike many other counties, Ventura County students have had no state college nearby to turn to after graduating from high school or community college, forcing many to leave home to pursue higher learning.

Channel Islands is supposed to change that. The university is set to open under its own name in fall 2002 and welcome its inaugural freshman class the following year.

Evans said he believes Channel Islands will quickly become a prime destination for students from across the state, making it vital that local students obtain the academic skills to get into the university.

“The onus is on the community colleges and the high schools to work with us to make sure those kids are qualified to come here,” he said.

The new policy will specifically affect students applying to San Diego State this fall and could hit Long Beach, Fullerton, San Francisco, Chico, Sonoma and perhaps Northridge campuses in the next two to four years.

Generally, admissions officers at impacted campuses will guarantee seats to all local students who meet minimum qualifications of a B average and complete all required college-prep courses.

Students hoping to attend crowded campuses will be steered toward those with more space--Long Beach applicants to Cal State Dominguez Hills, for instance, or Northridge applicants to Cal State L.A. or Cal State Channel Islands.

“It’s going to be tricky,” said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed, who expects complaints as Cal State campuses break from their long-standing open-admissions policies.

San Diego State, which is bursting at the seams with more than 31,000 students, will be the test case.

At that campus, officials have defined “local” as all prospective freshmen and community college transfer students from San Diego and Imperial counties.

The definition has yet to be determined at any other campus and promises to become more complex in the sprawling metropolitan region in and around Los Angeles, which includes seven Cal State campuses: Northridge, Long Beach, Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Los Angeles, Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State Channel Islands.

Northridge officials do not believe they will have to resort to turning away students for the near future, spokesman John Chandler said. The opening of Cal State Channel Islands is expected to reduce Northridge’s crowding.

Steve Lefevre, director of CSUN’s Ventura County campus, said the new policy won’t have any impact on his operation, housed at the fledgling Channel Islands site.

“It’s not an issue for us,” he said. “That’s our mission: to serve students who work, who have families or who are otherwise place-bound and find it difficult to even go to the main campus.”

*

Alvarez was reporting from Ventura, Weiss from Los Angeles.