Newest Cal State Campus Debuts

Calling its creation a “herculean achievement,” Gov. Gray Davis on Friday declared Cal State Channel Islands officially open, marking the end of Ventura County’s decades-long wait for a public university.

“For too long, Ventura County has been the largest county in the state without a four-year public university,” Davis said at a pomp-filled ceremony attended by more than 1,000 people who gathered on the campus near Camarillo. “Those days are over, and now the county is home to what will be one of the greatest public universities in the world,” he said.

When the new university opens its doors to students for the first time Aug. 26, it will “open the doors of opportunity for generations of students to come,” Davis said.

The governor was among many dignitaries who gathered in a grassy quad surrounded by the sun-soaked, Spanish-style buildings that make up the campus, the former site of Camarillo State Hospital.

“This is like giving birth,” observed state Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara).

State Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo), a former Ventura County high school teacher who pushed legislation that helped make the new campus a reality, drew a standing ovation.

“Welcome to the miracle on Lewis Road,” he said. “It doesn’t get any better than this, does it?”

Locating a university on the sprawling grounds of the old mental hospital was O’Connell’s idea, but one that initially came from his mother, he said.

A nurse at the state hospital 40 years ago, she always thought the buildings should house a university and would talk of going to work on “the campus,” O’Connell said.

“Mom,” the senator said, “we finally made it.”

As the politicians spoke, faculty members, staff, students, philanthropists and community members listened and clapped, using programs to fan themselves or shield their faces from the beating sun.

University President Richard Rush--dressed in a burgundy robe and gold medallion--presided over the ceremony, which began with a procession of faculty members and administrators clad in colorful academic regalia.

As guests drifted to their seats, they were treated to musical selections played by the Channel Islands and Port Hueneme high school bands.

“I know many of you have dreamed of this day for many decades,” Rush said. “Welcome to your university.”

He also thanked those who came before him, particularly founding President J. Handel Evans, who is credited with rallying financial and community support for the school.

For Evans, the day was bittersweet.

“I’m no longer connected to it, but the sweet part is that it’s finally opening,” he said. “It’s been a long, uphill climb.”

Friday’s opening capped a 30-year campaign to bring a four-year public university to Ventura County.

Early efforts were hampered by a lack of funding and no suitable site for the campus.

But the closure of Camarillo State Hospital in 1997 paved the way for Cal State Channel Islands, the 23rd campus in the CSU system.

About 1,300 transfer students have enrolled at the college so far, and the first freshman class will be admitted in fall 2003.

By 2025, the university anticipates serving 15,000 students.

“We’re looking forward to the campus growing, growing, growing,” said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed.

And with enrollment in the CSU system jumping by nearly 22,000 this fall, Reed said, the timing of the opening couldn’t be any better.

“This campus is a godsend,” he said.

Across a tiled courtyard where dignitaries milled about prior to the ceremony, Ventura County Supt. of Schools Charles Weis said the university will mean an immediate increase in the county’s below-average rate of high school students going on to four-year colleges.

“This is the biggest thing for Ventura County, ever,” he said. “It’s just incredible.”

That excitement never waned, from a formal breakfast in the morning to a post-ceremony reception in the afternoon, where guests chatted and sampled finger foods as they were serenaded by a seven-piece mariachi band.

Angela Chapman, a biology professor who came to Ventura County from Australia to teach at the university, beamed as she spoke of the chance to help develop new courses and curriculum.

“You don’t have to follow. You lead from whichever way the path takes you,” she said. “Looking around today at the buildings and everything, it just feels right.”

When college boosters first proposed building a new Cal State campus in Ventura County, they were hoping to make it easier for students such as Richard Ramirez to earn their bachelor’s degrees.

Ramirez, a 41-year-old Port Hueneme resident, served for 20 years in the Marines before deciding to return to school. He earned his associate’s degree from Oxnard College, but soon realized he could not afford to spend the time or the money to attend a public four-year university outside the county.

Now, the junior biology and pre-med major can’t keep the grin off his face as he talks about the thrill of being a member of the school’s inaugural class.

“I’m pretty excited,” he said. “‘I wish classes were starting this week.”