CAMPUS THRIVING AT 30; MOORPARK COLLEGE CELEBRATES THREE DECADES AS A CENTER FOR EDUCATION, EXPLORATION AND SERVICE TO COMMUNITY : THEN AND NOW.

Byline: Gloria Gonzales Daily News Staff Writer

Naomi Bergman keeps everything. She has files and scrapbooks from homes and jobs in Syracuse, N.Y., and Seattle - and lands as distant as Indonesia and Israel.

``I still have all the reviews from the `Glass Menagerie,' '' Bergman said, sifting through the yellowed pages from a closer-to-home file - her Moorpark College collection. ``And I also have the original playbooks.''

Bergman opens a dog-eared Samuel French playbook and performs a brief reading from Edgar Lee Masters' ``Spoon River Anthology,'' the first play produced at the college under the direction of the drama program's first director, Robert ``Doc'' Reynolds.

The playbook has her penciled scribblings on every page, directions Reynolds issued her 30 years earlier.

And Bergman remembers every detail of that long ago opening night, Nov. 11, 1967 - down to the petty backstage conflicts and first-performance jitters. She sometimes thinks of it when she walks by the school's new Performing Arts Center.

``But the thing is, it's just like Reynolds used to say, when you write a story or paint a painting, you have something left when it's done,'' Bergman said, describing why she eventually moved on to art and creative writing classes. ``In the theater, after closing night - all you have are the memories.''

Bergman, a member of the college's first class in 1967, just completed her final exam for a desktop publishing class on Friday, one of dozens of finals she's taken at the community college since she first enrolled there in 1967.

To Bergman, Moorpark College is like an old and tolerant friend. After she earned her associate's degree in 1969, she didn't stop by for a long time. She first used the college as a young mother, then as an older student working toward a degree, then to update computer skills and later just to learn. And every time she came back, she was welcome.

In between educational stints, she lived in Israel and Indonesia with her second husband, an engineer.

While living abroad, she taught English in American schools. When she returned to Thousand Oaks in 1987, after being away for nearly 10 years, she also returned to Moorpark College.

``I truly feel that you will never get age or get old as long as you are learning,'' Bergman said, listing her main reason for continuing classes at Moorpark. ``And we're fortunate in this community to have a college so close that offers so many opportunities. I just keep going back because there's so many different things I'm interested in.''

Off and on, she's taken computer, writing and art classes at the college, just a 10-minute drive from the Thousand Oaks home where she raised two sons, one now a surgeon living and working in San Diego, and one an engineer for General Electric in Taiwan.

Thirty years ago, when she first enrolled, she was 36. She took classes at night and cared for her two sons during the day. It took her two years to earn her associate's degree. In 1969, she was in the first batch of students at Moorpark to earn two-year degrees.

Like many of the college's 12,000 students today, Bergman went on to Cal State Northridge, where she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in speech in 1973.

When she started, 1,200 students were enrolled in classes taught by 36 faculty members in the campus' five buildings. Now, 10 times as many students are taught by nearly 200 faculty in 12 buildings.

``The year before I started taking classes at Ventura College I couldn't wait to go back to school,'' said Bergman, who had attended what had been the nearest campus until Moorpark College was built. ``I was tired of schlepping to class all the way in Ventura. I remember everyone around here eagerly waiting for the college to open.''

Bergman recalls that during the first semester, professors lectured over the sound of bulldozers and jackhammers, as construction continued on campus buildings.

In those days, the drama program performed its plays in the Forum Theater, now a part of the Campus Center.

``The performances were held in the area that is now the cafeteria or the student lounge area,'' Bergman said.

Clippings from the school paper, the Reporter, note that Reynolds met the challenge of staging the first production when only three students signed up for drama classes the first semester.

``How do you stage a play - complete with actors, stagehands, set decorators - when only three students have signed up for the course?'' the Reporter wondered.

Reynolds managed, and in the process helped build a strong Performing Arts Department.

``Now, we have about 2,000 students in the Performing Arts Department, and about 50 are drama majors,'' said Les Weider, the department's head. ``But one of the first things I asked when I interviewed to teach here was, when are we going to get a theater?''

Eighteen years later, two years ago, the Performing Arts Center was completed. The two-story, $10 million building includes two theaters, dance and music studios, rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms and even a make-up room.

The drama program now stages three productions and close to a dozen student-written, -directed and -performed one-acts. The number of productions has grown since the new building was completed.

``It was like moving from a bachelor apartment to a mansion,'' Weider said. ``We also stage one opera a year, and several music and dance performances.''

Students now take classes in acting for film and television, in addition to technical film and stage-production classes like lighting and set design. Naomi Bergman hasn't stepped foot in the new building, though she does notice it when she walks by. She doesn't think she'll audition for any new plays, although, as Weider notes, auditions are open.

She's not sure what class she'll take next, maybe a writing class, or perhaps another computer class.

Jim Walker, Moorpark College president, said stories like Bergman's warm his heart.

``It pleases me so much to hear about students like her,'' he said Friday, just moments before delivering a speech on a sweltering afternoon, to the 30th graduating class at Moorpark College. ``That's our goal and mission, to provide lifelong learning - not just courses for transfer students or career-track students. That's why were called a community college. We here for all members of the community, at all their different stages of learning.''

1967 1997

Faculty: 46 206

Students: 1,500 12,000

Buildings: 5 12

Programs: 26 program areas More than 50

CAPTION(S):

6 Photos, Box

Photo: (1--color) Students on their way to and from class amble by the Moorpark College Library, a repository of knowledge for about 30 years.

(2--color) Charity Selbrede, 17, and Shawn Dagnan, 19, talk during a break in classes at Moorpark College, now celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Andy Holzman/Special to the Daily News

(3) Moorpark College students have been hanging out on the campus lawns since the late 1960s, when this couple enjoyed a laugh over lunch.

(4) Naomi Bergman, a member of Moorpark College's first class in 1967, holds playbooks she saved from that year's productions.

Courtesy Naomi Bergman

(5) Phyllis Wheeler, left, and Naomi Bergman perform in Moorpark College's 1967 production of ``The Glass Menagerie.''

(6) Scaffolding surrounds the Moorpark College Library during its construction in the 1960s. The school opened in 1967.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News

Box: THEN AND NOW (see text)