Deukmejian Budget Allocates Money for New SDSU Campus

Plans for a North County branch of San Diego State University won some key support in Sacramento Thursday, as Gov. George Deukmejian earmarked $19 million for the purchase of a campus site in San Marcos and a similar project in Ventura.

The action brings the 20-year campaign for a university to serve the burgeoning North County region a big step closer to fruition. It also appears to remove doubts about the governor’s support for the campus, which would open as a two-year, upper-division satellite of SDSU and probably evolve into a four-year program independent of the crowded San Diego facility by the end of the century.

“Actions speak louder than words, and I think the governor’s support of our request at this juncture speaks for itself,” SDSU President Thomas Day said. “We’re very pleased that in this tough budget time, (Deukmejian) agreed we must address the educational needs of the people of North County.”

An aide to Sen. William Craven (R-Oceanside), a longtime advocate of the branch campus who was sick with the flu Thursday, was equally buoyed by the turn of events.

“We’re delighted,” aide Scott Johnson said. “This was one of our biggest legislative priorities of the year and, in an era of scarce resources, this is a big commitment.”

Johnson said Craven had made “a personal appeal” to the governor in December after hearing a report that funds for the San Marcos site were in jeopardy. The senator’s office also coordinated a letter-writing campaign, urging civic leaders throughout North County to shower the Capitol with correspondence trumpeting the need for the new campus.

The funds are part of $400 million in bond money made available for land acquisition and construction of higher education facilities by Proposition 56, which was passed by California voters in November. Without the pool of money created by the ballot initiative, purchase of the North County site in the near term would have been virtually impossible, California State University officials said.

“If the governor had not included it in his budget, we would have been forced to turn to general fund money, and there simply isn’t much of that to go around these days,” said Jack Smart, deputy provost of the state university system. “This was a critical moment.”

The timing of the funding approval was also important, Day noted, because available land in North County is rapidly dwindling, driving up prices and making construction of a centrally located college campus more and more difficult.

The $19 million is to be used both for the purchase of about 355 acres for the campus and for development of a much smaller off-campus center in Ventura County. An existing Ventura outpost serves both Cal State Northridge and UC Santa Barbara, and state trustees have approved the purchase of about 150 acres for a permanent satellite center there.

Just how the $19 million will be divided has not been specified, but Johnson said he expects that about $12 million or more will be available for acquisition of the San Marcos parcel.

A price for that site--formerly known as the Prohoroff Poultry Farms--has not yet been set. A state appraiser is evaluating the property, south of California 78 and next to Twin Oaks Valley Road, and probably will recommend a figure within a month.

Then, a negotiating team will begin to hammer out the particulars of the transaction, a process that could take several months.

“The actual land transfer will take place sometime after July 1, when the funds become available,” said Richard Rush, director of the existing SDSU center in San Marcos. Master planning of the campus--$200,000 for that was included in the governor’s budget as well--will begin shortly thereafter and actual construction could get under way in 1988.

If funding is forthcoming each step of the way, the campus could begin admitting students in the fall of 1992, Day said. State education officials estimate beginning enrollment at 3,000 students, while consultants hired to assess the need for a North County campus predicted more than twice that number will be waiting at the doors.

CSU officials also had sought $220,000 to begin academic planning for the San Marcos campus this year. But Bob Harris, program budget manager for higher education with the state Department of Finance, said the request was denied because analysts felt it was too early to begin that process.

The North County campus would represent the first major addition to the 19-branch CSU system since the late 1960s, when Cal State Bakersfield opened. In approving the purchase of land for the San Marcos branch last May, trustees made clear their belief that a permanent SDSU presence in the northern reaches of the county is needed. But the appropriate scale of the facility remains a matter of considerable debate.

Local civic leaders and Craven believe that demand for a full-scale, four-year campus--complete with dormitories and a football team--exists today in North County. But some trustees--who have watched state campuses at Stanislaus and Bakersfield fail to meet their predicted enrollment potential--are skeptical.

Others note that establishing a four-year program would duplicate the efforts of Palomar and MiraCosta community colleges. Such concerns may slow the expansion of the San Marcos branch.

Steve Bieri, a partner in Bieri-Avis, the Sorrento Valley development firm that owns the San Marcos site, hopes that isn’t the case.

“We’re planning on creating an entire college community around the campus, so we’re clearly eager to see a full-service institution with lots of students as soon as possible,” said Bieri, whose firm owns more than 600 acres surrounding the school site. “If we’re going to put in commercial, residential and retail there, it would be nice to have something to support it.”

The genesis of the North County campus dates to the late 1960s, when Craven, at the urging of local residents, authored legislation to create an SDSU branch.

The effort was unsuccessful, and it wasn’t until 1978 that a state grant enabled a small upper-division center to open in Vista. The SDSU program quickly outgrew its quarters and now is housed in rented space in a San Marcos industrial park. Enrollment continues to climb; there are 967 students enrolled this semester, compared to 639 students in the fall of 1985.

In addition to the Ventura and North County centers, trustees are considering establishment of a branch campus on state-owned land in Contra Costa County.