College to Create 4-Year Engineering Program

Three universities announced a partnership Monday with Antelope Valley College to create a four-year engineering program that would allow students to complete bachelor’s degrees on the two-year campus.

Students who complete their first two years of course work at the community college could register at Cal State Northridge, Cal State Bakersfield or Cal State Fresno for the junior-level classes in electrical or computer engineering, officials said.

They would take classes via videoconferencing, which would allow them to interact with professors who would be teaching courses simultaneously at one of the university campuses.

Antelope Valley College officials expect demand to be high enough to add senior-level classes in four years, said Steve Standerfer, a spokesman for the community college. The program’s freshman class begins course work in January.

The new degree program will make it easier for recruiters to fill technical positions with employees who are more likely to stay, said Rocketdyne spokesman Dan Beck.

“New employees coming from the local campus won’t have to adjust to a new area,” Beck said. “They’ll just have to settle into a new job.”

At least one of the 10 candidates in today’s community college board election is pushing for more bachelor’s programs in the Antelope Valley, home to about 400,000 residents and no public university.

The joint venture with Cal State is part of a continuing effort by Antelope Valley College to meet the local aerospace industry’s work-force demands, Beck said.

In June, the college received a $100,000 federal grant to purchase an airplane body that will be used as a classroom to teach new skills to aerospace workers who are in danger of losing their jobs. A month later, Gov. Gray Davis vetoed state matching funds for the project and killed a bill that would have allowed technology students to study in Cal State Bakersfield satellite classrooms in Lancaster.