VENTURA : Council Urges CSUN Separation

The Ventura City Council on Monday urged state officials to make the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge independent of its parent university.

The move comes at a time when civic and business leaders have expressed fears that state budget cuts could end the chance for Ventura County to get its own four-year public university near Camarillo. A campaign has been launched to keep the proposed Cal State campus high on the agenda of state university officials.

Councilman Tom Buford, who sponsored the resolution as part of the lobbying effort, wants Cal State Northridge’s satellite campus in Ventura to be separated from its parent school and established as an independent institution. The 1,200-student campus would then have a better chance of surviving budget cuts this year and thus establish a stronger Cal State foothold in the county, he said.

But David Leveille, director of institutional relations for the university system, said splitting the Ventura campus from CSUN would not necessarily spare it from budget cuts, and that the council’s action would make no difference in the timetable for establishing a new four-year university.

Any separation would have to be approved by Cal State’s chancellor or the board of trustees, Leveille said. The state Legislature would have to approve funding for such a separation, he said.

“We have a good idea,” Buford said before Monday’s meeting, acknowledging that the council lacks significant clout to influence such a decision. “We’re not prevented from commenting on things simply because we’re a city council.”

The council passed the resolution 6-0. Councilman Gary Tuttle was absent.

The CSUN Ventura campus offers upper-division undergraduate courses, and some graduate programs. Most of the students are from the Ventura County area.