Supervisors Rebuff CSU Over Taylor Ranch Site : Campuses: The board majority reacts angrily to a Taylor Ranch-or-nothing ultimatum by CSU chancellor.

In a political rebuff to Cal State University Chancellor W. Ann Reynolds, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors this week pointedly declined to support construction of a new state university at the controversial Taylor Ranch site in Ventura.

The supervisors endorsed establishment of a new four-year Cal State campus in Ventura County but ignored an ultimatum delivered by Reynolds last month, which stated that no Cal State campus will be built in the county except at Taylor Ranch.

Supervisor Madge L. Schaefer, board chairwoman, called the chancellor’s ultimatum a threat.

“I’m surprised that anyone in education would make that kind of a shoot-from-the-hip statement,” she said. “I’m going to give her a chance to rethink her position.”

The vote by the supervisors occurred as the Taylor Ranch site debate heated up dramatically in the wake of the ultimatum by Reynolds, who also asked for a public show of support for her position.

While supporters of the Taylor Ranch site rallied to Cal State’s cause, critics launched their own last-minute campaign to have a Cal State campus located elsewhere in the county.

During the supervisors’ debate preceding Tuesday’s vote, Supervisor John K. Flynn argued unsuccessfully for written support of a university at Taylor Ranch on the condition that no “fatal flaws” emerge in a broadened environmental impact report.

“We are sending the wrong message here,” Flynn said. “We risk not getting anything at all.”

In a move toward compromise, Supervisor Maggie Erickson added a brief statement to the letter to the CSU trustees, acknowledging the “state’s right to choose a site.”

Supervisor Susan K. Lacey, however, did not acknowledge Reynolds’ Taylor Ranch-or-nothing position. Lacey, who drafted the letter the board will send, said she wants to see the expanded environmental impact report before she decides whether to endorse the site.

“Then we will be able to discuss it with the facts on the table,” she said.

In delivering her ultimatum to the county late last month, Reynolds said the state had spent four years searching for a site and had looked at 40 locations. She requested a public show of support for the Taylor Ranch location by Feb. 1.

Without that support, in the form of letters to trustees and public officials as well as proclamations by public bodies, Reynolds said, the state will scrap plans to conduct a full environmental impact report at Taylor Ranch and will take its resources to counties that would welcome the university.

The expanded environmental report became necessary after a Ventura Superior Court judge in November found that an earlier report based on a two-year campus was inadequate.

The Board of Supervisors’ action was the strongest sign this week that at least some local officials have decided to dismiss the ultimatum or to view it as an ill-advised ploy to force support.

But Reynolds said she stands firm.

“We have no intention of reconsidering,” Reynolds said Tuesday. “We again went through many of the other proposed sites. There were problems because it was agricultural land or it was near an airport or it had multiple owners.

“We’ve advertised for this twice now and have looked at nearly 40 sites.”

CSU Trustee Theodore J. Saenger said Tuesday that the chancellor has the full support of the board.

“She is the chief administrative officer and that is the CSU position,” he said.

Neither Saenger nor Reynolds would comment on whether the supervisors’ letter constitutes the kind of endorsement they want.

The draft reads:

“The Ventura County Board of Supervisors fully supports the critical need for a public university in Ventura County.

“Recognizing the state’s right to choose a site, that any site considered for such a public university be subject, as required by law, to a complete detailed environmental report so that all environmental and economic aspects can be fully considered and discussed;

“That the state not turn its back on Ventura County’s education needs by imposing arbitrary deadlines on the decision-making process.”

The board’s letter was praised by Taylor Ranch opponents and was greeted with some expressions of disappointment from supporters.

“We support the board’s endorsement because we strongly support a university in the county, but we strongly oppose one at Taylor Ranch,” said Mike Harrelson, a spokesman for Patagonia Inc., whose founder, Yvon Chouinard, has been an outspoken opponent of the proposed Taylor Ranch site.

Bob Gregorchuck, president of the Ventura Chamber of Commerce, called the action disappointing.

“But we were glad the board was unanimous in support for a university in the county,” he said.

The need for a university is the single point of agreement on both sides of the highly charged issue.

More than 4,000 students commute to Cal State Northridge from Ventura County, according to state statistics. No figures were available from UC Santa Barbara on how many students make the northbound commute from Ventura County. But both campuses are facing enrollment caps that threaten their ability to serve Ventura County students.

Cal State Northridge closed enrollment to new freshmen and sophomores for spring, 1990, and UC Santa Barbara plans to allow only an additional 1,000 students over its current 19,000 for the next 15 years, UCSB Chancellor Barbara Uehling said.

The University of California is now in the early stages of selecting sites for three proposed campuses, one in northern, one in central and one in Southern California. Although the president’s office would not disclose any specifics about the 150 locations being considered, spokesman Rick Malaspina said “no county has been eliminated.”

Because the UC system has different admission standards and does not serve the same student population, the prospect of a new Cal State campus in Ventura County would not deter UC from building in the county, Malaspina said. However, negative reaction in the community to the Cal State campus could affect any decision by UC to put a campus in the county, he said.

Ronald Komers, Ventura County director of personnel, said he believes both universities are needed to train people in fields ranging from nursing to civil engineers. The county has 6,400 employees and more than 800 vacancies, many that have lacked for qualified applicants for years, he said.

“Because our cost of housing is so high here in Ventura County, we need to take the county population that already lives here with roots here and develop them to meet our needs locally rather than trying to import talent from elsewhere,” he said.

The Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge has 1,000 students and 1,300 more on a waiting list, CSUN Director Joyce Kennedy said.

“The residents of Ventura County have been paying for public higher education beyond the community college level and they are not receiving their fair share of state resources generated by the county,” she said.

Statistics show that nearly eight of 10 students at Cal State’s Ventura extension campus are women; eight of 10 are working people. With an average age of 34, many students are women who are re-entering the school and job markets, Kennedy said.

In addition, a university would help serve the county’s growing Hispanic population, Kennedy said, many of whom come from lower income families and cannot afford to send their children to college out of the county.

Ventura City Councilwoman Cathy Bean, who ran and was elected on her opposition to the Taylor Ranch, said the need here is “not that desperate.”

“As for lower-income students, we know we are talking about the Hispanic students, and our big concern with them is to make sure they get out of high school being able to read and write, and then getting into college for a couple of years,” she said.

Graciela Soliz, a teacher in the Oxnard School District and vice president of the Oxnard chapter of the Assn. of Mexican-American Educators, said Hispanic students need and would use a four-year college as much or more as any other ethnic group.

“All students, of all colors and races, need a four-year college,” Soliz said.

She called Bean’s statement racist. “I’m surprised an educated person would even utter such words,” Soliz said.