CLU president says school is healthy despite recession
By Rachel McGrath, Ventura County Star
“We are still building, and our applications for undergraduate programs have tripled in the past five years,” said President Chris Kimball.
The president of California Lutheran University told a business audience Tuesday that despite the recession, the private Thousand Oaks college is healthy and committed to serving residents and businesses.
Chris Kimball was the guest speaker at the inaugural Business Enhancement Luncheon hosted by the Thousand Oaks-Westlake Village Regional Chamber of Commerce. About 60 local business professionals attended the event at the Westlake Village Inn.
“We have survived so far quite well,” Kimball said. “We are still building, and our applications for undergraduate programs have tripled in the past five years.”
The university, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, will welcome its second largest freshman class ever this fall, Kimball said. CLU is averaging about 2,000 traditional undergraduates and about 1,500 adult students, mostly at graduate level, at its main campus in Thousand Oaks and branches in Oxnard and Woodland Hills.
Kimball said that even with the economic downturn, the university had been able to press ahead with several projects funded by donations. “We’ve spent about $60 million in the past five years just on construction projects,” he said.
A new residence hall accommodating 220 students is nearing completion, and this month the university broke ground on the new Swenson Center for Academic Excellence.
Kimball said the university’s challenges mainly involve helping families who are struggling economically to send their children to college, and continuing to attract those thinking of entering the UC system or wishing to transfer from a Ventura County community college.
“We have 175 transfers each fall and the majority come from Moorpark College,” he said, outlining concerns that state budget cuts to education could mean fewer students earning the junior college credits needed to transfer to CLU.
Kimball said the university provides $20 million in financial aid each year, its second highest expense after employee compensation.
He said the growing number of undergraduate applications means CLU is attracting more of “the brightest and the best,” and that many students stay in the Conejo Valley after graduating from CLU.
“So CLU is bringing in brains and talent from other parts of the country to the region,” Kimball told the gathering. “One of the things I hope for most eagerly is that we all feel this is a collegiate town and that having the university here makes this community stronger, just as we think this community makes the university better.”
--- Published in the Ventura County Star on June 17, 2009