A Transformational Place

Los Angeles Valley College will end its yearlong 50th anniversary celebration Friday by dedicating a commemorative garden and preparing a time capsule--filled with college catalogs, yearbooks, a compact disc of music arranged by one of the school’s professors--to be opened on the college’s 100th birthday in 2049.

Much like the memorabilia-filled capsule is a link between the past and the future, the college’s golden anniversary provides an opportunity for both appreciating the two-year school’s accomplishments and anticipating the challenges ahead.

Since it opened in 1949 in five bungalows on five acres, more than 1.5 million students have attended classes. About 16,000 full- and part-time students are enrolled today on a campus that has grown to 21 buildings on 104 well-groomed acres.

Many students go on to four-year universities such as UCLA, where they do as well or better than upper-division students who entered UCLA as freshmen.

Others enroll in Valley College’s job-training programs and go on to careers in nursing, fire technology, law enforcement and office administration or enter customized training programs that lead to jobs with such companies as Burbank Aeronautical Corp.

“There are a lot of different paths once you cross the door here,” says Valley College President Tyree Wieder, who has led the school since 1995. “People come here to transfer to major universities. They come to learn specific job training. They come for our extension program. For individuals, it’s a transformational place.”

And community colleges themselves, says Wieder, are in a state of transformation.

Students who enrolled at Valley College in the 1950s reflected their surrounding neighborhoods: predominately white, middle class, suburban.

Today’s student population is ethnically diverse. Numerous languages are heard on campus. The college provides information on citizenship and voting for its many immigrant students.

Students tend to be older, in their late 20s, on average, although there are younger students too as more high school students enroll in concurrent classes. Valley not only prepares students for life after community college but helps high-school students prepare for college through collaborative programs with San Fernando Valley high schools.

As for changes ahead, Wieder looks to technology changing what Valley teaches, from the latest video editing in its new Media Arts Academy to on-site training for businesses and industries. Technology will also affect how Valley teaches, from enrolling students and collecting data on them to offering online courses and distance education.

“There will always be a need for traditional classrooms,” she says. “But we have a generation coming up that’s used to working online” and that will need to be on campus less.

Wieder’s goals for the years ahead? Maintaining a strong basic foundation in the liberal arts and sciences. Keeping up with the latest changes in technology. Working ever more closely with business and industry. Launching a physical therapist program and expanding Valley’s nursing training. Upgrading campus facilities--and finally replacing those original five bungalows.

In a community college district frequently plagued by noisy problems, Valley College is a quiet success story. May its next 50 years be equally successful.

The public is invited to attend the final commemoration of Valley College’s 50th anniversary year at noon Friday at the main campus entrance, 5800 Fulton Ave., Valley Glen.