COLLEGE HEAD MARKS 40 YEARS AS EDUCATOR.

Byline: Paul O'Donoghue Daily News Staff Writer

The Moorpark College president is celebrating this year: his 40th year in the education profession, as well as in his marriage.

The growing junior college that Jim Walker administers continues to gain recognition.

Just last week, the National Science Foundation awarded $339,000 to the college's biotechnology lab, the first grant the college has received from the federal agency in about 15 years.

Earlier this year, the college's forensics team placed third in the state and seventh in the nation in public speaking.

Walker said he is just where he wants to be - at Moorpark College after a stint filling in as chancellor of the Ventura County Community College District, which has campuses in Ventura and Oxnard as well as Moorpark.

``I appreciated the show of confidence, but really prefer to be a college campus president,'' he said. ``I was very happy to come back here, and I'm happy ever since.''

Walker, who will be 63 next month, started his career as a high school math teacher. He moved on to El Camino College in Torrance in 1966 and stayed for 20 years. In 1986, he was appointed a vice president at College of the Canyons in Saugus.

In 1992, he became president at Moorpark College, where he oversees an annual budget of about $28 million.

Walker said his top priority at the college has been to provide a good environment for learning.

``I think when you do that, when you provide a really good atmosphere for learning to take place, students will come,'' he said.

About 60 percent of Moorpark High School's graduates attend the college, and many go on to University of California campuses.

In the 1997-98 academic year, the college ranked eighth in the state in sending students on to UC campuses, up from 18th the previous year.

``When you have folks who work with you who are really professional, then it doesn't require a whole lot of micromanaging on my part,'' he said in praise of the faculty and other staff.

Biotechnology giant Amgen and Baxter Health Care are helping Moorpark College establish a biotechnology program for second-year students in cooperation with California State University, Channel Islands, at Camarillo.

Amgen and Baxter have given almost $250,000 to equip the lab, and the $339,000 federal science grant will be used for work on the facilities and more equipment, said Floyd Martin, dean of the college's science and engineering division.

On the Moorpark campus, a new $5 million, 27,000-square-foot math and science building will open in the fall, and a $7 million computerized library learning center is planned.

As the student population continues to increase - and enrollment is projected at 15,000 within five years - Walker hopes funding will improve.

``I guess the worst part is matching your financial resources with what you'd like to do, with your dreams,'' he said.

He said state funding for community colleges is about $3,200 a year per student, a fraction of the $11,000 per student in the UC system and less than at any other level in California's education system.

``We're at the bottom of the food chain,'' he said.

He said that limits the number of full-time teachers, counselors and library personnel.

Walker, who earned a master's degree from the Notre Dame University and a doctorate in education from the University of Southern California, lives in Westlake Village with his wife, Nancy. They have two grown children and five grandchildren.

``I just hope that this institution is fulfilling the expectations of the people, because that's very important to me. I like to believe that it is. But on the other hand if we're not, I'd like to know about it,'' he said.

``The quality of learning experience is very, very important, not just to me but to everybody, because, after all, we are a community college and that means that we serve this community and we try to develop programs where the need is.''

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PHOTO (Color in Simi Edition only) Jim Walker says he is happy as Moorpark College president.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News