LOCAL UNIVERSITY A GRADUAL PROCESS CSU OFFICIALS SAYS DEMAND, LAND AND COMMUNITY BACKING NEEDED.Byline: JIM Jim Miss Watson’s runaway slave; Huck’s traveling companion. [Am. Lit.: Huckleberry Finn] See : Escape SKEEN Staff Writer LANCASTER -- Creating a full-fledged university campus in the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley will be a gradual process requiring strong community support, an intense demand for service from students and a large chunk of land, civic leaders were told Friday. In a summit on higher education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. hosted by the Antelope Valley Board of Trade, officials from the California State University system California State University System, coordinating agency established in 1960 by the merger of individual California state colleges, now consisting of 23 campuses. said that it will take community support and resources to bring a four-year campus to the region. The region also needs to increase the numbers of students seeking four-year degrees to prove there is growing, sustainable demand for more higher-education services. ``While everybody wants that campus and wants it now, the real ability to be successful is to go step by step to build the foundation to get to that goal,'' said John Welty Dr. John Welty is the president of California State University, Fresno. He was appointed president on July 29, 1991. Before coming to Fresno, he had previously served as president of Indiana University of Pennsylvania for seven years. , president of California State University, Fresno The campus sits at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the San Joaquin Valley. Fresno County is the sixth largest metropolitan area in California. The university is within an hour's drive of many mountain and lake resorts and within a three- or four-hour drive of both Los . The summit drew some 150 government and business officials and educators from around the Antelope Valley and from as far as Ridgecrest and the Victor Valley. The summit was organized to kick off development of a master plan for regional higher education, with the ultimate goal being establishing a four-year university. The Board of Trade hopes to complete the plan in nine to 10 months. The summit included advice from Gary Reichard, executive vice chancellor vice chancellor n. Abbr. VC 1. A deputy or an assistant chancellor in a university. 2. A deputy to or a substitute for a head of state or an official bearing the title chancellor. 3. for academic affairs for the CSU See DSU/CSU. 1. CSU - California State University. 2. CSU - Cleveland State University. 3. CSU - Channel Service Unit. system; Horace Mitchell, president of California State University, Bakersfield As of fall 2002, some 7,700 undergraduate and graduate students attended CSUB, at either the main campus in Bakersfield or the satellite campus, Antelope Valley Center in Lancaster, California of Los Angeles County. ; Jackie Fisher, president of Antelope Valley College Antelope Valley College is a comprehensive community college located in Lancaster, California, USA. It is operated by the Antelope Valley Community College District, with a primary service area of 1,945 square miles covering portions of Los Angeles and Kern counties. ; David Vierra, superintendent of Antelope Valley Union High School District The Antelope Valley Union High School District (A.V.U.H.S.D.) is located in the Antelope Valley area of California, in northern Los Angeles County. The district includes eight public high schools, one trade school, and two continuation high schools in the cities of Palmdale ; and Welty. CSUB's Mitchell offered his own campus as a case study for how to move toward establishing a campus. CSUB CSUB California State University, Bakersfield CSUB WESTPAC Fleet Submarine Broadcast CSUB California State University Band , which joined the CSU system in 1970, initially began as a satellite center for Fresno. ``The availability of land to create a campus is essential,'' Mitchell said. ``Bakersfield is on 375 acres that was on the outskirts. Now it's part of the fastest growing area of our community.'' Since at least the 1980s business and civic leaders have tried to attract a four-year university to the Antelope Valley, and now both CSU Bakersfield and CSU Fresno offer upper-division and graduate-level courses locally. Local leaders say attending a four-year college is harder for Antelope Valley residents than for students in other parts of the state because of the distances involved. Antelope Valley students must either drive long commutes, or move to on or near campus, which is more expensive. CSUB has begun offering degree programs in the Antelope Valley using a building on the north end of Antelope Valley College and classrooms at the Lancaster University Center. CSUB will include the idea of aiding in the creation of a separate Antelope Valley CSU campus as part of their strategic planning, Mitchell said. Reichard said regional leaders must do more to encourage high school students to pursue a college education. More students need to be taking the appropriate course path for admission into the CSU and the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). systems, he said. ``You need to communicate directly to the families the system for moving on into the UC/CSU system,'' Reichard said. Reichard also said not enough local students are taking advantage of the Early Assessment Program, which provides students a chance to measure their readiness for college-level English and mathematics in their junior year of high school, and to facilitate opportunities for them to improve their skills during their senior year. Fisher and Vierra said they are working together on a plan aimed at getting students focused on getting into college early on in their high school careers. The plan is for some high school students to actually attend classes at Antelope Valley College, taking a mix of college and high school level courses. The mix of college course work would increase as the students progress through school. Upon graduation, the students would be well on their way to getting an associate's degree and being ready to transfer to a four-year school. That program will start this fall with a group of about 75 students. Eventually the program would have up to 100 students each from the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior ranks in the program. james.skeen(at)dailynews.com (661) 267-5743 CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Horace Mitchell, John Welty, Jackie Fisher, David Vierra and Gary Reichard, from left, participate in a panel discussion. (2 -- color) CSU's Gary Reichard gives the keynote address at the Antelope Valley Board of Trade's education summit. (3) CSU Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Gary Reichard delivers the keynote address Friday at The Antelope Valley Board of Trade conference on higher education. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
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