Cal State Channel Islands
Board of Trustees proposes to transform a state mental hospital into a new campus

By William Trombley

CAMARILLO
THE 22 CAMPUSES of the California State University include one near the Redwood forests of northern California (Humboldt State), another among the turkey ranches of the Central Valley (Cal State Stanislaus), even one on an abandoned infantry training base (Cal State Monterey Bay).

Some years ago the system's board of trustees considered placing a campus on a ship and floating it up and down the California coast. But landlubbers prevailed and this became Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Now these educational entrepreneurs are planning "Cal State Channel Islands," which would be a sort of pay-as-you go operation on the grounds of the soon-to-be-closed state mental hospital in Camarillo, 50 miles north of the Los Angeles Civic Center.

If plans materialize, Cal State would take over the 629-acre hospital site on July 1, 1998, and transform it into a campus that would accommodate 5,000 or more students by the year 2005.

The hospital has a certain measure of fame. Charlie Parker, the famous jazz musician, was a patient there. The Eagles' 1976 hit "Hotel California" ("you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave") is thought to have been inspired by Camarillo. And scenes of the popular television series "MASH" were shot in the hills behind the hospital.

Now Cal State proposes to use about 90 acres of the site for the first public four-year campus in Ventura County. Another 155 acres would be leased to businesses and other enterprises, with the revenue from these rentals helping to pay for the university.

"The idea is to develop a revenue stream big enough to support bonds that would be used to build and operate the campus," said J. Handel Evans, president of Cal State Channel Islands. "We have to do this because we know the state doesn't have the money to build a traditional campus in Ventura County."

Evans said possible tenants include high tech firms, office buildings, developers of senior citizen housing and the local school district, for a kindergarten-through-eighth grade "magnet school."

"One high tech company is interested in leasing 100,000 square feet," the president said excitedly. "They would be a wonderful anchor tenant."

But no leases have been signed as yet.

"The whole thing is very much a chicken and egg proposition," Evans said. Potential tenants are unwilling to commit until they are sure there will be a campus, and the campus cannot come into being without money from the leases.

Cal State Chancellor Barry Munitz believes this is the kind of risk that the system must take if it is to accommodate the huge enrollment increases that are expected in the next decade.

"I'm not convinced this is the way to go," Munitz said, "but I am enthusiastic about considering this approach. We know we can't keep doing things the old way, we have to consider new roles for CSU. Is one of these roles that of real estate developer? I don't know. That's what we're looking at now."

Influential members of the Board of Trustees have expressed private doubts about the plan. One, former board chairman William D. Campbell, has been publicly critical.

"At this point, as I read the numbers, and pending further analysis, this looks like a turkey to me," said Campbell, who has been a Cal State trustee for ten years. "This is a real estate dog wagging an educational tail."

Campbell said the income from leases would be insufficient, causing the campus to run an annual deficit of $18 million by the year 2006, even with a yearly state appropriation of $10 million.

"It would cost us $17,000 per full-time student, and the state would contribute only $5,000 per student," Campbell added. "This thing is crazy."

Nor does Campbell like the idea of Evans, the campus president, "running around trying to line up tenants" for the proposed development. "Since when does the state of California hire a man like Handel Evans to be a real estate developer?" he asked. "He's supposed to be an educator."

Campbell also warned that the Channel Islands deficit "will splash over the whole system," reducing the amount of money available for the other 22 campuses.

Supporters of the proposed new campus point out that Ventura is the most populous county in the state without a four-year public college or university. They say this is the main reason for the county's low college participation rate.

In 1995, only 5.3 percent of Ventura County high school graduates moved on to the California State University, while the statewide average was 9.2 percent, according to the California Postsecondary Education Commission. Another 6.7 percent of county graduates attended a University of California campus, below the statewide average of 7.3 percent.

But commission analysts pointed out that the lack of a four-year campus is only one of many factors that might account for lower college attendance in Ventura County.

Boosters say the campus is needed because there are not enough well-trained workers for the high tech companies that are moving into the county.

"From a businessman's point of view, there isn't the talent to provide for the industries that exist here today, much less the companies that would like to come here," said Wally Boeck, a retired computer industry executive.

Since a Ventura County campus was first discussed more than 30 years ago, several new Cal State campuses have opened. But land disputes, opposition from environmental groups and a series of bureaucratic missteps by both the state and the university have delayed selection of a campus location.

By the time a site finally was picked in 1995--260 acres of lemon groves near Camarillo--the state was reeling from the effects of a recession and there was no money either to build the new campus or to operate it, once built.

"We had 260 acres of lemon trees and no money," said Evans, who was a systemwide vice chancellor before being appointed president of Cal State Channel Islands in January 1996. The campus appeared to be stalled.

But then Governor Pete Wilson's administration, overriding the objections of some mental health professionals as well as families of patients at Camarillo State Hospital, decided to close the hospital because it was too costly.

A task force appointed by the governor recommended that the hospital be converted into a Cal State campus and that Cal State be allowed to generate revenue for the new campus by leasing some of the hospital grounds and buildings "for uses compatible with its educational mission."

Campus supporters were elated.

"I jumped at the possibility," said Carolyn Leavens, whose family has been growing lemons and avocados in Ventura County for three generations. "It was the best opportunity we'd had in a long time.

"But we've got to make the public aware that you can't build a university the way we used to," Leavens added. "It's got to be a cooperative effort."

However, others in Ventura County are not convinced that converting the mental hospital to a pay-as-you-go college campus is such a good idea.

"To be honest, I don't see a lot of community support for it," said County Supervisor John Flynn. "I think everybody's kind of tired of these several efforts to put in a university."

The two state senators who represent the county are divided. Democrat Jack O'Connell is for the plan but Republican Cathie Wright is opposed.

"The senator has been saying all along she wants to make sure there are no hidden costs to the taxpayers of Ventura County," said John Theiss, an aide to Wright. "She doesn't want the university coming back in five years and saying, 'Guess what? We need another few million.'"

Competition among the county's major cities remains a problem. Some wonder how much enthusiasm there will be in Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Ventura for a campus located in Camarillo.

To minimize damage to these civic sensibilities, it was decided to name the proposed campus for the Channel Islands, a cluster of offshore islands that are home to dolphins, sharks, seals and flying fish, but few people.

Even Camarillo has expressed some concern about the leasing plan.

"We want to be sure that our green belt areas are protected and that this area doesn't become heavily industrialized," said City Manager Bill Little. "We want to keep the growth pressure within the campus and not let it spill out into the countryside."

Families of the few hundred patients still housed at Camarillo State Hospital and an adjacent developmental center have sued to keep the facilities open.

Ed Nani, of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill, said the state plans to shift many of the patients to Metropolitan State Hospital in Los Angeles, which Nani described as a "barbed wire facility where many of these patients will not do well."

Nani said his group asked that 23 acres be set aside for what he described as the "most fragile patients," but that Handel Evans "will have none of it--he feels the presence of such a facility would taint his campus and scare off some of his big business customers."

Evans said Nani's group was asking for a "locked-down facility" that "would not be conducive to the elder care units we hope to build." He said caring for mentally ill or developmentally handicapped patients "is not part of the Cal State mission, and we are trying to stay on mission."

Even if all these conflicts can be resolved and county citizens unite in support of the new campus, there is still the troubling problem of how to pay for it.

Cal State officials say the buildings could be converted into a 5,000-student campus for $40 million to $45 million, about half the cost of building a traditional campus of the same size.

But annual operating costs are projected to be more than $37 million by the fiscal year 2005, while annual lease revenue is expected to be only $3.5 million. These are the numbers that lead Trustee Campbell to label the proposal a "turkey."

Richard P. West, Cal State's senior vice president for business and finance, said he was "a little disappointed that development of the property doesn't appear to produce more revenue." But he said the fiscal analysis would continue and a final decision by the trustees might not be made until next fall.

"We're committed to building a new campus in Ventura County," Chancellor Munitz said. "The question is, do we continue with the 260-acre site we already own...which would be very expensive to the state and would be a pretty traditional campus, or do we take the lease revenue route?

"Our board has said there are some very difficult questions to answer, and we are in the process of trying to answer them. If the numbers work, we will go ahead. If the numbers do not work, we'll return to working with the site that we already own."