Current Vol. 5 No. 1

President's Message:

When I arrived in Ventura County some four years ago, the University was but a twinkle in everyone's eye. We had 260 acres of lemon trees and row crops, a rather checkered project history—and no money! How things have changed. We now have the beginnings of a major showpiece campus, which I believe will become a campus of choice as we develop its potential in the years to come. Every time I come to work I am struck by the changes–some subtle, some more obvious, which are taking place as we prepare for our first students. We are just beginning, but our future looks bright. It has been crucial, and still is, that the university not stand alone as it proceeds with planning. The partnerships that we create will have much mutual benefit as we progress. Our most significant and unique partnership has been the creation of the California State University Channel Islands Site Authority as a result of SB1923 (O'Connell.) This legislation created the means by which planning and development will take place in our quest to create a true university community. The Site Authority, with Supervisors Frank Schillo and Kathy Long representing the County Board of Supervisors and Councilwoman Charlotte Craven of Camarillo representing the cities, ensures a public voice in the sensitive issue of the development of Ventura County. By the time you receive this newsletter, we will be unveiling our final specific plan for the project and will have presented our supplementary Environmental Impact Report. This community development, with its university housing and future school sites identified will, I trust, be well-received within the community as a serious and thoughtful conclusion to a long process involving many individuals and organizations. Much of the public interest has been held by our unique development program; however, the purpose of this development is to facilitate the establishment of a university, not the other way around. Therefore, it is important to recognize the effects of community support on our academic endeavors. Since the last issue of Current, we have been blessed with a generous gift in the form of a $5 million bequest from the estate of Martin V. Smith. "Bud" Smith, as he is more popularly known, has been a developer of renown in Ventura County and particularly in the city of Oxnard. This gift, given to our endowment fund, has specific direction as to its use; and as such ensures a continuity of funding for our university. The proceeds from the Smith bequest are to be used to establish a faculty chair in Land Use Planning and Development, which we hope will become a catalyst for the establishment of an institute for the study of land use issues, particularly those germane to our county.