 
Fall 2010: Retired dean Peter Wilson leans against the wall of the
science building at California State University Palm Desert and smiles
as some of its 3,000 students rush to class. A number of them have
older brothers and sisters who left the Coachella Valley to pursue
higher education. But these young people, some of whom were in
elementary school when the first of the public university’s privately
funded buildings went up, won’t have to leave as they work toward their
four-year degrees and beyond. Thanks to an unprecedented collaboration
of state institutions, city governments, businesses and charitable
organizations, they’ll be able to obtain teaching credentials or
master’s degrees in nursing or business administration closer to home,
and perhaps the valley will benefit from the fruit of their ambition
and intelligence.
Fall 2002: The Palm Desert Campus of California State University San
Bernardino — with one permanent building and only the beginnings of a
fulltime faculty — has a ways to go before becoming a full-fledged
state university. But Wilson has good reason to believe his vision of
the future will come to pass by the end of the decade. The students
arriving for the first fall session serve as living proof that positive
thinking can pay off.
A Place of Their Own
In 1983, the president of the College of the Desert, a two-year college
in Palm Desert, placed a phone call to the chancellor of the California
State University at the urging of the college’s board of trustees. The
trustees wanted COD to become a CSU campus, with the prestige and
economic development that would bring to the area.
“The area didn’t have the population to support it,” Wilson says. “And
if COD did become a CSU, who would do what COD does?” (Community
Colleges such as COD have a mission to provide instruction that
includes associate degrees and vocational and technical training. The
CSU system grants bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as teaching
credentials.)
Instead, the president of CSU San Bernardino agreed to establish an
off-campus center to offer upper-division and postgraduate study. With
no permanent facilities of its own, the Coachella Valley campus has
conducted classes in trailers on the COD campus and borrowed space at a
high school, a middle school and a senior center. Although the
arrangement provided desert residents with an opportunity for
graduate-level study, civic leaders held on to the dream of a permanent
university campus.
Wilson, a former CSUSB student, in 1990 became dean of the Coachella
Valley campus and recognized the need and potential for growth. “We got
to talking to Palm Desert city officials and one thing led to another,”
Wilson says. “In 1994, the city and the CSU board of trustees signed a
memorandum of understanding that the city would set aside 200 acres.
Palm Desert views the gift of land worth an estimated $17 million as an
investment in the area’s future, says city council member Bob Spiegel.
“The idea is for students to be able to have a complete education
here,” he says. Once they leave the desert, it can be tough to get them
back.” He also hopes the campus will bring new blood to the city. “We
don’t have much light industry in Palm Desert,” he says. “We feel this
will bring business and families to the desert.”
Assistant city manager for redevelopment Justin McCarthy agrees. “We
see it as a long-term driver of the Coachella Valley economy,” he says.
“A university attracts and creates a talent pool. Companies will be
attracted to where there is talent. UC Irvine made the city of Irvine.
You’re seeing the start of that here.
Building a Future
With the promise of the land at Cook Street and Frank Sinatra Drive assured, the challenge of paying for buildings remained.
“There’s not a population base or money from the state for CSU to come
out here and build on their own,” Spiegel says. Although the state
agreed to pay maintenance and operating expenses, private funding would
have to cover construction costs.
“In 1997, we did a facilities study and we started a capital campaign,”
Wilson says. “In October 2000, we broke ground on the first building.”
The Mary Stuart Rogers Gateway Building, for which $9 million was
raised, includes a bookstore, a student union, several classrooms and
facilities for receiving class instruction via television broadcasts
from the CSUSB main campus. With construction complete, the university
has taken a major step forward into uncharted territory.
“As far as I know, this is a first in that it’s a public university
built with private money,” says associate dean Cynthia Flores. “This
may serve as a model for other areas, but I don’t know if it will work
anywhere else. The Coachella Valley’s unique in that it has areas of
great affluence and of great need.”
This month brings the groundbreaking for the second building, the
Indian Wells Center for Educational Excellence, scheduled for
completion in November 2003. The city of Indian Wells pitched in $5
million toward the construction of a 30,000-square-foot home for the
university’s professional training programs for teachers. An adjacent
300-seat lecture hall and theater will be known as Indian Wells Hall.
“This city is very concerned about education,” says Indian Wells mayor
Conrad Negron. “The council voted 5-0, and almost every citizen who
spoke was in favor. We have a reputation as snobby, elitist people who
don’t care; it’s not true. We don’t live in a plastic bubble.
Unfortunately, a lot of people in the valley haven’t had an opportunity
for a proper education. With a university here, we can keep our young
citizens in this growing valley.”
The third building, to house science programs, remains in the design stage. Naming rights are available.
Another planned structure actually will be built and occupied by a
program of the University of California Riverside. (The UC system
awards bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees and emphasizes
graduate studies and research.)
Working Together
Wilson and colleagues had planned to approach Richard Heckmann, founder
of USFilter, with a proposal for naming the second Palm Desert Campus
building.
“As we stood there, waiting, out came a delegation from UCB,” Wilson
recalls. “We kind of looked at each other and smiled.” When Wilson’s
group met with Heckmann, they learned he had just agreed to fund an
educational center for UCB. “He said, ‘My only requirement was that
they put it in the Coachella Valley. I want you to give them some
acreage to put it there.”
The Richard J. Heckmann International Center for Entrepreneurial
Management will include offices, classrooms and a conference center.
UCB and CSUSB plan to share facilities and cooperate on several
programs at the center. It’s unique in the UC and CSU systems,” Wilson
says. “Terry Green [UCB desert-programs assistant dean] and I have been
having breakfast together weekly.”
Despite the growth of the Palm Desert branch and its recent association
with UC, its relationships with other educational institutions remain
close.
“We hosted a conference for counselors from elementary to community
college,” Flores says. “The Cal State and COD presidents signed a
dual-admissions program that starts this fall. We admit students
simultaneously to COD and Palm Desert, streamlining the process. It
includes special advisors, guaranteed transfers and a waiver of the
transfer fee. So many of our students are first-generation students,
and they need to be supported as they move from one level to another.”
The CSUSB Palm Desert Campus owes its existence to cooperation among
governments, businesses and foundations, and its success in providing
educational opportunities to Coachella Valley residents may depend
largely on collaboration among the divisions of public higher education
in California. Wilson feels fortunate to have been a part of the team
at this moment in the history of the university and the region.
“I had a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Wilson says. “Lee Iacocca
defined leadership as ‘finding the right parade and getting in front of
it,’ and I found a good parade.” 
|
A new university campus symbolizes unprecedented cooperation between public and private institutions.
By Keith Bush
Fall 2010: Retired dean Peter Wilson leans against the wall of the
science building at California State University Palm Desert and smiles
as some of its 3,000 students rush to class. A number of them have
older brothers and sisters who left the Coachella Valley to pursue
higher education. But these young people, some of whom were in
elementary school when the first of the public university’s privately
funded buildings went up, won’t have to leave as they work toward their
four-year degrees and beyond. Thanks to an unprecedented collaboration
of state institutions, city governments, businesses and charitable
organizations, they’ll be able to obtain teaching credentials or
master’s degrees in nursing or business administration closer to home,
and perhaps the valley will benefit from the fruit of their ambition
and intelligence.
Fall 2002: The Palm Desert Campus of California State University San
Bernardino — with one permanent building and only the beginnings of a
fulltime faculty — has a ways to go before becoming a full-fledged
state university. But Wilson has good reason to believe his vision of
the future will come to pass by the end of the decade. The students
arriving for the first fall session serve as living proof that positive
thinking can pay off.
A Place of Their Own
In 1983, the president of the College of the Desert, a two-year college
in Palm Desert, placed a phone call to the chancellor of the California
State University at the urging of the college’s board of trustees. The
trustees wanted COD to become a CSU campus, with the prestige and
economic development that would bring to the area.
“The area didn’t have the population to support it,” Wilson says. “And
if COD did become a CSU, who would do what COD does?” (Community
Colleges such as COD have a mission to provide instruction that
includes associate degrees and vocational and technical training. The
CSU system grants bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as teaching
credentials.)
Instead, the president of CSU San Bernardino agreed to establish an
off-campus center to offer upper-division and postgraduate study. With
no permanent facilities of its own, the Coachella Valley campus has
conducted classes in trailers on the COD campus and borrowed space at a
high school, a middle school and a senior center. Although the
arrangement provided desert residents with an opportunity for
graduate-level study, civic leaders held on to the dream of a permanent
university campus.
Wilson, a former CSUSB student, in 1990 became dean of the Coachella
Valley campus and recognized the need and potential for growth. “We got
to talking to Palm Desert city officials and one thing led to another,”
Wilson says. “In 1994, the city and the CSU board of trustees signed a
memorandum of understanding that the city would set aside 200 acres.
Palm Desert views the gift of land worth an estimated $17 million as an
investment in the area’s future, says city council member Bob Spiegel.
“The idea is for students to be able to have a complete education
here,” he says. Once they leave the desert, it can be tough to get them
back.” He also hopes the campus will bring new blood to the city. “We
don’t have much light industry in Palm Desert,” he says. “We feel this
will bring business and families to the desert.”
Assistant city manager for redevelopment Justin McCarthy agrees. “We
see it as a long-term driver of the Coachella Valley economy,” he says.
“A university attracts and creates a talent pool. Companies will be
attracted to where there is talent. UC Irvine made the city of Irvine.
You’re seeing the start of that here.
Building a Future
With the promise of the land at Cook Street and Frank Sinatra Drive assured, the challenge of paying for buildings remained.
“There’s not a population base or money from the state for CSU to come
out here and build on their own,” Spiegel says. Although the state
agreed to pay maintenance and operating expenses, private funding would
have to cover construction costs.
“In 1997, we did a facilities study and we started a capital campaign,”
Wilson says. “In October 2000, we broke ground on the first building.”
The Mary Stuart Rogers Gateway Building, for which $9 million was
raised, includes a bookstore, a student union, several classrooms and
facilities for receiving class instruction via television broadcasts
from the CSUSB main campus. With construction complete, the university
has taken a major step forward into uncharted territory.
“As far as I know, this is a first in that it’s a public university
built with private money,” says associate dean Cynthia Flores. “This
may serve as a model for other areas, but I don’t know if it will work
anywhere else. The Coachella Valley’s unique in that it has areas of
great affluence and of great need.”
This month brings the groundbreaking for the second building, the
Indian Wells Center for Educational Excellence, scheduled for
completion in November 2003. The city of Indian Wells pitched in $5
million toward the construction of a 30,000-square-foot home for the
university’s professional training programs for teachers. An adjacent
300-seat lecture hall and theater will be known as Indian Wells Hall.
“This city is very concerned about education,” says Indian Wells mayor
Conrad Negron. “The council voted 5-0, and almost every citizen who
spoke was in favor. We have a reputation as snobby, elitist people who
don’t care; it’s not true. We don’t live in a plastic bubble.
Unfortunately, a lot of people in the valley haven’t had an opportunity
for a proper education. With a university here, we can keep our young
citizens in this growing valley.”
The third building, to house science programs, remains in the design stage. Naming rights are available.
Another planned structure actually will be built and occupied by a
program of the University of California Riverside. (The UC system
awards bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees and emphasizes
graduate studies and research.)
Working Together
Wilson and colleagues had planned to approach Richard Heckmann, founder
of USFilter, with a proposal for naming the second Palm Desert Campus
building.
“As we stood there, waiting, out came a delegation from UCB,” Wilson
recalls. “We kind of looked at each other and smiled.” When Wilson’s
group met with Heckmann, they learned he had just agreed to fund an
educational center for UCB. “He said, ‘My only requirement was that
they put it in the Coachella Valley. I want you to give them some
acreage to put it there.”
The Richard J. Heckmann International Center for Entrepreneurial
Management will include offices, classrooms and a conference center.
UCB and CSUSB plan to share facilities and cooperate on several
programs at the center. It’s unique in the UC and CSU systems,” Wilson
says. “Terry Green [UCB desert-programs assistant dean] and I have been
having breakfast together weekly.”
Despite the growth of the Palm Desert branch and its recent association
with UC, its relationships with other educational institutions remain
close.
“We hosted a conference for counselors from elementary to community
college,” Flores says. “The Cal State and COD presidents signed a
dual-admissions program that starts this fall. We admit students
simultaneously to COD and Palm Desert, streamlining the process. It
includes special advisors, guaranteed transfers and a waiver of the
transfer fee. So many of our students are first-generation students,
and they need to be supported as they move from one level to another.”
The CSUSB Palm Desert Campus owes its existence to cooperation among
governments, businesses and foundations, and its success in providing
educational opportunities to Coachella Valley residents may depend
largely on collaboration among the divisions of public higher education
in California. Wilson feels fortunate to have been a part of the team
at this moment in the history of the university and the region.
“I had a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Wilson says. “Lee Iacocca
defined leadership as ‘finding the right parade and getting in front of
it,’ and I found a good parade.”
|
