University Center is fine first step to a higher goal
Record-Searchlight 4/15/07
The $18 million building, built with bond money, is on schedule to be ready for students in August. They'll be able to pursue studies in the nursing and dental-hygiene fields in close collaboration with the nearby hospitals and community clinic, as well as bachelor's degrees in nursing, business and liberal studies and a master's in business administration.
The bachelor's programs have quietly rolled out at Shasta College in the past few years, but the University Center will make room for substantial growth. Shasta and Chico hope to add other four-year programs at some point, too.
They have every reason to feel chuffed. Thanks to them and their local partners, we might get a four-year public institution of higher learning yet -- even if we have to do it in pieces.
In that vein, much work remains to be done.
Early in this decade, then-Shasta College President Doug Treadway avidly promoted the expansion of four-year programs. A study carefully demonstrated the need, and UC Davis, Southern Oregon University and the Oregon Institute of Technology -- as well as Chico State -- were recruited as partners. The prospect of comprehensive higher education in Redding helped sell a bond issue in 2002.
Since then, Shasta College has suffered turmoil in the head office, California's universities have endured painful budget cuts, and escalating construction costs have squeezed the college's building plans.
What Shasta College should hold onto is its ambitions. A 2002 study suggested as many as 20 bachelor's programs -- from criminal justice to computer science -- and six master's degrees. Reaching that goal will be a longer slog than anyone might have hoped, but it's still worth pursuing.
The highest hurdle to a more prosperous north state is greater access to higher education. As long as students must move away to pursue their goals, most of them will stay away, and the area's economy will languish.
The University Center is a big step toward a better future. Let's hope it's just the first step of many.