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Bill could lead to new CSU campus in Antelope Valley

A bill sitting in the California Legislature could lay the groundwork for a new Cal State University campus in the Antelope Valley.

If passed, Assembly Bill 736 would require CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White to conduct an in-depth feasibility study to determine if the Antelope Valley could support a new CSU campus, according to the bill.

The Antelope Valley encompasses the Southern California cities of Lancaster, Palmdale and California City, as well as other surrounding smaller cities, according to the bill.

Authored by Assemblyman Steve Fox, the bill has been read three times and sent to a committee for assignment.

“This is the very first step that is needed to create a four-yea college,” Fox said in a video from Assembly Access. “Higher education is [the students’] ticket out of poverty.”

Some factors the feasibility study would examine include infrastructure availability, geographic and physical accessibility and effects on other educational institutions.

The study would specifically examine the feasibility of starting a CSU satellite program in the Antelope Valley, a program that could eventually become an independent CSU campus.

Currently, CSU Bakersfield has a campus center at Antelope Valley College that offers eight undergraduate and five graduate degrees, according to its website.

Cal State Long Beach’s engineering department also offers two bachelor’s degree programs through Lancaster University Center.

The study, comprised of 12 different criteria, would be due 18 months after the CSU Board of Trustees secures funding for the study, according to the bill.

However, according to CSU Spokesman Erik Fallis, the CSUhas expressed some concerns about the bill to Fox.

“We shared with [Fox] that we were clearly concerned that given the fiscal constraints [of the CSU], this may not be the appropriate time for a study of this kind,” Fallis said. “There is a cost associated with doing a study.”

Fallis said the CSU wants the state to cover expenses related to an Antelope Valley feasibility study if the bill passes.

“We would ask that the state cover the cost,” Fallis said. “If we’re required by the state [to perform the study], then of course we will.”

According to the bill, however, funding for the study can be derived from non-state sources only.

Currently, there are 23 campuses within the CSU system. The last CSU to be added to the system was CSU Channel Islands in 2002.

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