$16.7 Million Earmarked for CSU Campus

Solidifying efforts to transform Camarillo State Hospital into a college campus, Gov. Pete Wilson on Friday earmarked $16.7 million in his proposed budget to operate the university and turn a number of its Spanish-style buildings into classrooms and administrative offices.

The budget request, which comes four months after Cal State trustees agreed to take control of the shuttered hospital, provides more than twice the money that university officials had hoped to squeeze from the governor’s spending plan.

Moreover, university boosters said it provides the strongest endorsement yet of efforts to convert the hospital site into the state system’s 23rd campus.

“When I heard the news I openly cheered,” said state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo), who has long fought to establish a local Cal State campus. “We did far better than we anticipated. It’s a great day in the history of Ventura County.”

The money for the developing Cal State Channel Islands campus was buried deep in Wilson’s spending package, a couple of line items set forth in dry, bureaucratic language.

But Wilson spokesman Kevin Eckery said Friday that the items are key to launching Ventura County’s first public university.

“I think the governor made it very clear that education is his priority in this budget,” said Eckery, referring to a variety of initiatives funded by the $70-billion spending plan. “This is an endorsement of the work the university and the community have been doing, as well as a demonstration of the governor’s commitment to higher education.”

Ventura County is the most populous county in the state without a public four-year university.

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

Ending a 30-year wait for a local campus, the 24-member Cal State governing board agreed in September to take control of the hospital property and convert it into the new home for the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge.

Under that plan, the satellite campus would remain an extension of Northridge until it attracts enough students and funding to support itself and become a university.

The trustees’ vote was contingent on Wilson’s willingness to contribute $6.5 million to operate the campus and begin upgrading the hospital’s 85 buildings, situated on 680 acres south of Camarillo.

Until Friday, Cal State planners had been hoping the $6.5 million would be included in Wilson’s budget.

But they were surprised when they learned it included $11.5 million for capital construction and $5.2 million for technology, maintenance and other support services.

The $11.5 million is especially significant in that it will speed construction at the site, said Handel Evans, president of the new Channel Islands university.

To pay for the initial phase of construction, planners had intended to issue a bond measure of $10 million to $12 million, a process that would have taken months.

But Evans said the bond won’t be needed if the state pays for those construction costs. Once Wilson signs the budget into law, contractors can get to work.

“We were holding our breath hoping we would be able to do something like this,” Evans said.

The budget now goes to the Legislature for months of hearings. If the campus funding survives, Cal State planners could have their money this summer.

That will put them on target to relocate the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge to the hospital property and open for business by January 1999.

In coming months, O’Connell said, it will be up to him and other Ventura County legislators to see that nothing happens to the money designated for the local campus.

“I will protect the money like a mother hen,” he said. “I’m very confident it will be there in the end.”

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FYI

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will decide whether to pursue special legislation aimed at cutting the cost of converting Camarillo State Hospital into a college campus.

The board will consider creating a special authority to lure businesses to the site. The agency would provide tax breaks and other incentives. The board meets at 8:30 a.m. at the County Government Center.

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