CSUCI, Tech Firms Bolster Ties

Representatives of the county’s technology industry gathered with faculty members from Cal State Channel Islands on Wednesday to celebrate groundbreaking for the school’s science building--and a partnership that could ultimately change the business landscape of Ventura County.

The CSUCI, Business and Technology Partnership was formed two years ago to launch a collaboration between technology firms and the new university. Earlier this year the coalition surveyed businesses in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties to learn about hiring needs, hiring trends and employee skills.

The results of the survey offer guidelines for structuring science and technology programs and designing curriculum at Cal State Channel Islands.

“We’re trying to create a response to the needs of the future,” university President Richard Rush said. But the school also will benefit from the partnership, he added.

“We can’t reach our goals without their support, and they can’t reach their goals without our resources,” Rush said.

John Philo, vice president of Alliance Protein Laboratories, already has been supporting the new school. The company is a university tenant and Philo has helped with faculty selection. Once the science program begins, Philo said, he hopes to offer students internships at his company.

Also, the biotechnology giant Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, recently donated $75,000 in laboratory equipment to the university. Another firm has inquired about donating medical equipment, university officials said.

Wednesday’s symposium attracted more than 100 tech-firm representatives. Lou Tomasetta, chief executive of Vitesse Semiconductor in Camarillo, made a presentation underscoring the importance of the partnership and the potential effect on the region.

“Bedroom communities can’t work on a large scale,” Tomasetta said. “Ventura is basically an agricultural community, but it’s going through a transition. It’s going to require an industrial base.”

That base, with the help of the university, could be technology, he said.

If the university provides a skilled and educated work force, technology companies in the area could grow, and start-ups would spring from the talent pool, Tomasetta said. Workers in the industry earn above-average salaries, he said, which would add wealth that could be recycled in the community.

“We have a janitor with a $350,000 house in Oxnard,” Tomasetta told the audience.

But no one should expect an overnight transformation. Tomasetta estimates it would take five to 10 years for a wider technology base to develop from the existing tech community.

The opening of the science building in fall 2003 is but one step in the process, albeit an important one, members of the coalition said.

The red-tiled science building will have more than 31,000 square feet with eight labs, an auditorium and 16 offices for faculty members.