Cal State Fullerton Seeks South County Campus Site

Moving onto turf dominated by UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton plans to create a branch campus in south Orange County, possibly at the Ziggurat building in Laguna Niguel, The Times has learned.

Cal State Fullerton officials confirmed last week that they are seeking a South County building to offer regular academic classes for up to 1,500 students.

“One of my high priorities since coming to Cal State Fullerton has been to make university programs more accessible to residents of the rapidly growing area of south Orange County,” said President Jewel Plummer Cobb. “The current study (of an off-campus center) reflects that interest and has reinforced my belief that we can secure suitable facilities.”

The center would bring moderate-cost, four-year university classes closer to the residential and working areas of hundreds of South County students, Cal State Fullerton officials said. It would be especially geared for community college students transferring into four-year degree programs.

No Site Picked

The 840,000-square-foot Chet Holifield Building, known as the Ziggurat, is under consideration because it has space for rent and “the location is right,” said Patrick Wegner, Cal State Fullerton’s associate vice president for extended education.

No site is firm, however, Wegner stressed. He said the university also is exploring the possibility of renting space in some large commercial buildings in south Orange County.

The off-campus center would serve high school graduates and community college transfers from the area that extends from Irvine to San Clemente.

UC Irvine, Orange County’s only other public four-year university, is the focal point for higher education in south Orange County. By state law, however, admission requirements are higher for a University of California campus than for the California State University system.

To be admitted to UC Irvine, a student must be among the top 12% of California high school graduates. Admission to Cal State University campuses is open to the top third of high school graduates.

Fees at UC Irvine are almost twice those at Cal State Fullerton. A full-time student who is a state resident will pay $1,336 at UC Irvine next year. The same student would pay $744 at Fullerton.

But while cost and admissions standards differ, both UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton are academic competitors for bright high school graduates. Thus Cal State Fullerton’s proposed move into affluent, growing south Orange County is raising some concerns about an invasion of UC Irvine’s turf.

UCI Chancellor Jack Peltason said Friday that Cobb had informed him of Cal State Fullerton’s proposed move. “We don’t feel territorial,” Peltason said. But, he said later, UC Irvine might consider expanding into north Orange County with a center of its own.

Any expansion would require approval of the CSU Board of Trustees and a favorable report from the California Postsecondary Commission. Wegner said that as Cal State Fullerton’s search for a site continues, the university will seek approval from both agencies.

And he noted that there are precedents at other CSU campuses.

Several Branch Campuses

San Diego State University has an off-campus center at Imperial Valley and a temporary one in San Marcos. Cal State Northridge, jointly with UC Santa Barbara, has a center in Ventura. Cal State Stanislaus has a center in Stockton, and Cal State Hayward has a Contra Costa County center.

San Diego State University just last week received approval from the CSU Board of Trustees for a permanent, off-campus center in San Marcos in north San Diego County. The trustees, meeting in Long Beach, said there is “a likely, ultimate need for a full-service campus” at San Marcos to serve the fast-growing area.

But Wegner said that move still does not bring CSU classes within reasonable commuting distance of many students in south Orange County.

“A south Orange County student would still have to drive about 40 miles to get to the San Marcos center,” Wegner said. “To get to our main campus in Fullerton, a student also has a long drive in traffic.”

Growing Population

Meanwhile, south Orange County, with more than 1 million residents, is continuing to grow.

“Our primary reasons for seeking a South County center are because there is a large increase in population down there, and the only four-year institution there is UC Irvine, which is impacted,” Wegner said.

UC Irvine, where enrollment has steadily increased, is using temporary classrooms such as movie theaters for some classes. But Peltason emphasized that Irvine is scheduled to get more buildings.

“What keeps us from growing bigger than we are,” Peltason said, “is that we don’t have the buildings to put the professors and the students in. But we think that logjam is being broken.

‘No Geographical Limits’

“So we are going to grow. We’re ambitious, and we have plans to expand. We have no geographical limits, and we could, for instance, certainly move into north Orange County with a center.”

In south Orange County, a combination of affluent families and excellent local schools in the area produce high percentages of college-bound students. Many initially attend two community colleges in South County, Saddleback College in Mission Viejo and Irvine Valley College in Irvine.

Since the California State University system attracts the largest share of community college transfers, it would be wise for Cal State Fullerton to have a south Orange County branch, Wegner said.

“We want to help the community college student who plans to transfer but doesn’t have a place to go,” Wegner said. “Many of these students have jobs in South County and can’t live away from home. They need a four-year institution close to where they live and work.”

Finding Site an Obstacle

Finding a site is a major hurdle, Wegner said. While the federally owned Ziggurat offers a good location and ample parking, the government has indicated it would require Cal State Fullerton to lease more space than it needs. Exactly how much space needed for the campus was not revealed.

The Ziggurat, so named because its design suggests a terraced, Babylonian pyramid, has space because federal agencies have been reluctant to relocate into the mammoth building off La Paz Road. In 1983, the government tried to sell the building, then dropped the effort. Last year it began trying to find private firms to rent space.

A regional official of the federal General Services Agency in San Francisco, which oversees the Ziggurat, said last week that a private firm is using basement storage space in the Ziggurat but that no firms have rented office space so far.