Graduates Are First in Line

CAMARILLO — For the first time since plans were announced to transform Camarillo State Hospital into a four-year university, the old mental hospital had the feel Friday of a college campus.

Maybe it was the sea of 300 black-robed graduates from the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge who marched in the shadow of the bell tower at the former hospital complex.

Or maybe it was the more than 3,000 friends and family members, many standing on chairs and craning their necks to snap photos and shout out to loved ones.

Or maybe it was the historical significance of the ceremony itself, the first commencement held on the grounds of what is expected to become Ventura County’s first four-year public university, known as Cal State Channel Islands.

Whatever the reason, the shuttered facility seemed reborn Friday, hosting a ceremony that seemed as much about the future of the campus as it did about handing out diplomas.

“This commencement marks the dawn of a new era,” said Ventura resident Wendy Novak, who spoke on behalf of her fellow graduates. “Not only for us as graduates, but for Cal State Northridge and Cal State Channel Islands. We are the first of many graduates for generations to come.”

Ringed by aging, sun-bleached buildings set to become classrooms and administrative offices, graduates rose one by one to accept diplomas from CSUN officials, including university President Blenda J. Wilson and Channel Islands President Handel Evans.

There was much talk about the value of CSUN’s local campus, a learning center launched with 75 students nearly a quarter of a century ago that has grown into the largest satellite campus in the CSU system.

And there was talk about plans to move the campus to the hospital complex, expanding academic programs and boosting enrollment until it can stand on its own as a full-fledged university.

But most of all there was talk about the birth of the university at the Camarillo site, a move that ends a 30-year wait in Ventura County for a college to call its own.

“Truly this is an historic day in Ventura County,” said state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo), who delivered the commencement address. “This has been a dream come true for so many people. And this marks the most significant day yet of the evolution of a four-year university here.”

As graduations go, this one was different than most.

The bulk of the 15,000 students at the off-campus center are older than the typical college student. Many hold down jobs while going to school part time. Others are returning to college after long layoffs.

As a result, Friday’s crowd was peppered with the sons and daughters and even the grandchildren of CSUN graduates.

“I chose to get my first degree in motherhood and wifery,” said Newbury Park resident Jeannett Fitzgerald, who picked up a degree in liberal studies with her husband, mother and children looking on.

“Now I’ve gotten my second degree,” she said. “It took me over 10 years, so this is very meaningful for me.”

Goleta resident Joan White knows the feeling. After raising a family and working full time for 24 years as a Santa Barbara County employee, she retired two years ago and decided to go back to school.

“I’ve lived my life backwards in a way,” she said. “This is just something I always wanted--it was always a dream of mine. I just never gave up on it.”

The off-campus center is scheduled to move to the old hospital complex, perhaps as early as January.

But in a nod to early efforts to bring a Cal State campus to Ventura County, officials presented a special award to Joyce Kennedy, who retired last spring after 23 years at CSUN’s Ventura campus, the last 15 as its director.

The award, named after former Ventura Congressman Robert J. Lagomarsino, was in recognition of her years of service to the university.

“I’m just thrilled to see so many people here today,” Kennedy told the crowd after it delivered a standing ovation. “It’s a dream beyond words.”

That is the same sentiment used by graduates to describe the end of this phase of their academic careers. Many said they planned to return to the local campus to further their education, promising to become students at the place where they graduated.

Others said they were satisfied with simply accomplishing this long-term goal, and for being a part of the inaugural graduation class at the budding campus.

“It’s been a very long struggle for me, I’ve had to overcome a lot of obstacles,” said 28-year-old Oxnard resident Arturo Vargas, who works as a victim advocate for the district attorney’s office and who earned a sociology degree with his parents, brothers and sisters looking on.

“This has a lot of meaning,” he said. “It’s a sense of achievement for something I started six years ago. But it also means a lot to be part of the first class graduating from here.”