In 2005 The Regents of the University of California erected the first American research institution of the 21st century. The location? Merced, California. Situated between Modesto and Fresno, the town boasts a population of 80,000 in a county of about 200,000.
Yes, dear SCVTalk readers – while we were loading up on home equity, trading in Excursions for Hummers and squabbling about traffic on the Newhall Pass, little Merced bagged the UC system’s tenth campus.
A few months ago, SCVTalk drew out comparisons between SCV and Irvine, CA. Chief among the differences, we argued, is Irvine’s enviable 3:1 jobs:housing ratio – driven mainly by the presence of UCI, a gift from the City and developers to the Regents five years before the town sprouted up.
Before you pack up for that spread in Turlock… of course, having a research institution in one’s own backyard isn’t an instant job creator. The planted seed needs time to germinate. Universities continuously enrich a community with new, smart blood guided under the tutelage of seasoned research leaders. Their innovations hasten entrepreneurialism, which flows benefit back to the school, and the virtuous cycle continues. Jobs are the sweet nectar of the investment, which will take leadership, wrangling, back room deals, private money, cheap or free dirt, and a hell of a lot of patience.
But oh, the result.
I’d argue that we’ve gotten great mileage out of City’s pro-business stance – perhaps as much as the initiative can give, Disney’s nascent presence notwithstanding. But gains from here will for the most part be incremental. To jump the 1:1 jobs:housing hurdle in this Valley, we need something beyond Cash for Cell phones. This isn’t a novel concept for our valley, but it’s a curious omission from the draft General Plan guiding OVOV.
With our educated populous, an immediate pipeline of gifted students (backed up by some of the best primary, secondary and vocational education systems in the region), a notable base of leading edge companies (Advanced Bionics, Specialty Labs, Boston Scientific, Woodward HRT all come to mind), ideal geography (equidistant to UCSB and UCLA), SCV has a platform and environment that would make a fine campus for a research institution.
Sure, California’s university systems are a complete shambles. That will get sorted out – this is a long term play for both of us. And who said it has to be a branded UC? We can be a research-focused extension of the UCLA campus, go totally private – Scripps-style, or even a hybrid of sorts. There are startup costs, but what about diverting some of the taxpayer’s business boondoggle money for seed funds, perhaps matching local dollars? The Regents also committed over $1B in capital improvements over the next 10 years. We’d only need a slice of that to get something going.
Where can we put it? That’s the easy part. We have dirt. We have gobs of empty office space. We can start small, perhaps in some of the University Center’s sweet digs. We can even call it UCDVH if necessary. As I think about it, in true SCV fashion, the hardest part will be picking a mascot.
Thank God “Anteater” and “Banana Slug” are already taken.
I could not disagree more with this thesis. The mere idea that the state college system is turning out smart, professionals ready to take on the challenges of an increasingly globalized business world is simply laughable. The worn-out old hippies and Next Gen hipsters that run our UC System have been so thoroughly insulated from the geo-economical events of the last 2 decades that they still see Big Labor Unions as a partner in growing the economy (see UC Labor Institute). Merced can have it’s stupid state college campus and all of the left-wing fantasies that come along with it. The hybrid campus’ of COC are better positioned to launch graduates into a multitude of differing careers while the UC system is really good at preparing students to be good little race-baiting, nanny state-supporting Liberals.
Wow! I have to say I’m really embarassed that there are such closed-minded people living here in Santa Clarita.
Go Anteaters! ZOT ZOT!
spoken like a guy who stopped at canyon high
UC Awesometown. Just awesome.
Kevin, you’re ridiculous if you think COC is somehow better equipped to send students into the workplace than any UC. COC’s role is to send students into a UC or a CSU.
COC is increasingly providing career training that puts them into the workplace rather than their parents into debt.
Of course some of the greatest inventions of all time were invented in research institutions. It’s too bad that the caliber of leadership under which those institutions were able to do that has long since passed.
unfounded.
CSU and UC schools are not as cheap as they used to be but still provide a good overall value in terms of costs compared to other state-funded schools in the Country. Also, they typically rank very well among other colleges.
Despite a UC education being more expensive than a COC one, there are plenty of help out there. Financial aid, scholarships, work-aid, etc. If there is a will, there is a way, and I think it’s worth it.
COC is more then ready to make the jump to a 4 year University. It is already 1 of 2 schools that have the highest accreditation that a 2 year school can get in this state.
Kevin,
With all due respect, you have no idea what you’re talking about.
Thanks,
Mike
Yeah Mike, because my work with the largest non-union apprenticeship programs in California gives me no knowledge base from which to draw these conclusions. I think what you meant to say is that you disagree with me.
I agree with mike you are really on tilt.
Please tell me specifically where I am going wrong on this. I would love to know what your personal experiences are with the UC System today.
UC System isn’t what it was but it isn’t broken… the state is broken.
Nate, you’re splitting hairs. A broken state is translating into a bankrupt state college system. Think about how expensive it is to attend a 4 year university compared to the the money (and time it takes t get a job) that graduates are experiencing. Naw man, it is more than just the state that fu**ed up.
“The worn-out old hippies and Next Gen hipsters”
Tread lightly there son.
State only funds 19% of UC’s operating budget, if I recall correctly
No the UC system was running fine. The state decided to fix its problems by putting the burden on students and their parents.
It would have been much more responsible for the state to take the bull by the horns and start doing something about the freeloaders aka Illegals taking alot of our states money.
They could start by requiring citizenships for curent student visas to attend state schools. UC and CSU doesn’t like that because those heads are free money from state.
What good are degrees if you can’t get a job after you graduate?
“What good are degrees if you can’t get a job after you graduate?”
Precisely the thesis of my original comment.
I am referring to illegals which take the state’s money yet can’t put back into the economy because they are illegal.
As an example, UCLA employees 30,000 folks in all sorts of fields. These are relatively good jobs and as NickelDime indicates a large proportion are not related to churning out graduates. UCLA’s annual budget is $4.4 billion of which $635 million was spent on research. An additional $2.3 billion was generated by enterprises like the medical center. It would be a home run for the SCV to get an institution with a fraction of the economic contribution of UCLA.
I wasn’t smart enough to go to a UC (I went to the much less prestigious CSU which at one time was the nation’s largest university, but is now second place to, of all things, University of Phoenix) but I like this idea.
I like smart people. And smart people go to UC. Plus I’m tired of the whole Master’s College vs Cal Arts paradigm. It’s like we either have fundamentalist college kids or crazy art kids. I don’t understand either of them.
COC is more my speed but it’s a community college focused on cranking kids out to the next stage.
Hey John, I hate to point this out, but being that this is an article about academia, you might wanna use the proper terms.
“Regent” = literally “ruler” but in our context, a member of the “board of directors” that governs education systems generally consisting of multiple institutions.
“Reagent” = substance or compound that is added to a system in order to bring about a chemical reaction or is added to see if a reaction occurs.
That being said, while the jobs would be very nice to have, I don’t necessarily think that we need a UC Canyon Country…. At least, not until we don’t have a giant bottleneck at the 5/14 everytime an orange truck overturns and shuts down the only way in or out.
If you think traffic is bad now, imagine what it would be like when you have 50,100 – 100,000 people commuting to/from campus every day through the Newhall Pass.
I don’t not think theres a problem.