07.21.07

CSUSB Needs To Lead Us

Posted in Local News, Political, Small Business at 16:48 by lnxwalt

I am a proud graduate of our nearby campus of the California State University.  I took Business Administration at CSU San Bernardino (CSUSB).  I was there when the University’s College of Business and Public Administration received AACSB acreditation.  It was a good school then, and it is a good school now.

CSUSB has its main campus at the foot of the San Bernardino mountains, near the intersection of the I-15 and I-215 freeways (the I-210/CA-30 is also nearby).  It also has a branch campus in Palm Desert, funded through a unique partnership between local Coachella Valley businesses and governments with the state of California.

In the Victor Valley and Barstow areas, there are large numbers of people coming into the area, but relatively few employment opportunities for those residents.  As a consequence, motivated residents tend to take a lot of classes at our local community colleges (Victor Valley Community College and Barstow Community College).  Those who can afford the commute then wind up driving up and down the Cajon Pass to complete their Bachelor Degrees at the CSUSB main campus.

I propose that local government, local businesses, and the two community colleges sit down with the administration of CSUSB and work out a solution.  Here are my ideas:

• Create the High Desert Campus (or campuses) on land near Southern California Logistics Airport (SCLA), Apple Valley Airport, or Barstow-Daggett Airport.  This campus should include branch campuses of the two community colleges as well.  Another interesting option is to get other state-owned universities (University of California-Riverside [UCR] and California State Polytechnic University-Pomona [CSPUP] come to mind) to also join in the effort.
• Research–the community needs research into alternative energy, conservation, recycling, mass transit, information technology & robotics, and low environmental-impact production processes.  Let that be a focus of this campus, combining technology, business, and the sciences into a blended program that is both theoretical and practical.  For example, developing residential (home/apartment-based) power generation systems that can then be installed throughout the area would both advance our understanding of the challenges of such systems and have practical effects of lowering the utility costs of local residents.  Research into mass transportation systems to connect areas like ours to regional employment and recreation centers is another area of need.  Research into ways to get more use out of the water we have (and ways to get more water into the area) would also be helpful.
• Technology–The community needs research and development of reproducible, BSD/MIT/GNU-licensed technologies for improved business processes.  For example, programmable robots would be an option.  Technologies that are developed with public funds should always be licensed under open-source licenses and be freely usable by taxpayers (at least those of said jurisdiction).  This will enable the development of a zone for seeding low environmental-impact technology SLOBs.  The best thing would be for the County of San Bernardino and the local cities & town to provide managerial and financial assistance in exchange for an agreement to stay in the area for up to ten years (if the business is still open by that time), hiring local residents for any open positions.  This isn’t much more than what is already given to large out-of-area companies, except that those out-of-area companies tend to leave when things get rough.
• Vocational training–This would be applied technology taught in conjunction with the two community colleges.  Since SCLA is just North of a large federal corrections complex, there would probably be some federal funding available for “rehabilitating” some of their inmates.  Apple Valley airport is not too far from large retail chain’s area distribution center and I also believe the County of San Bernardino has a small correctional facility (or maybe youth correctional facility) a couple of miles North of the airport.
• Military re-entry & vocational rehabilitation–with so many of our young people going overseas to fight in wars, there is a large group of people that are or will be returning to this country without any usable civilian job skills.  Many of them will have physical or emotional damage from their tours of duty.  Building a large re-entry facility and offering to help the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs re-acclimate these individuals into society can only help our locality as well as the whole of American society.
• Foreign Languages–Assuming that the military re-entry program flies, there would be a pool of people who have been exposed to foreign languages and cultures.  The area could utilize that to build competencies in international cultural understanding in partnership with local school systems.  In addition to Middle Eastern languages and cultures (Arabic, Kurdish, Hebrew, Farsi, and so on), it would be great, for example, to bring in real Japanese residents to come and instruct high school and college students in Japanese language and culture.  Ideally, each class would be a yearlong immersion, including a two-week trip to said country.

There is a reason why so many local graduates leave the area.  However, with some serious effort by CSUSB, SB County, and the local town+cities & educational institutions, this can be a place that attracts ambitious people.

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Tags: economicdevelopment, education, high desert, victor valley, csusb, vvc

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