Chula Vista University takes another step toward reality

from Deborah BrennanCalMatters

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

By 2027, students in South San Diego County will be able to earn eight different bachelor’s degrees from three public universities while enrolled at the new Chula Vista University. This is before there was even a campus.

The university, which opens next year, promises a new approach to higher education as a hybrid institution with programs from San Diego State, San Marcos State, UC San Diego and Southwestern College.

It’s part of a long-awaited plan to create a four-year campus in the city of Chula Vista. City officials have been pursuing that goal for decades, seeking state support and buying land for a possible campus. Assemblyman David Alvareza Democrat from the community, made it his top priority when he was elected in 2022.

“South County has long been considered a college desert,” Alvarez said at a town hall meeting on the project Saturday. “It’s one of the most diverse, fastest-growing parts of the state, yet it’s still underserved in terms of higher education.”

Chula Vista presented its vision for the campus as part of its city plan in 1993, Alvarez said. In 2006, California education leaders and local governments proposed building a combination university and research park so students could live, study and eventually work in their own community.

By 2014, the city had acquired 383 acres of land for the new campus. But in 2017, the state Legislative Analyst’s Office concluded that there was not enough enrollment demand to justify building a single UC or Cal State campus.

“It was reported that it wasn’t the right time,” Alvarez said in a video about the project.
“California didn’t need another public university.”

While the state may not need one, proponents insisted that South San Diego County does. So they agreed on a multi-institutional campus to train students for key jobs. It would be more focused than a traditional liberal arts university, with degrees aimed at regional workforce needs in fields such as nursing, public health, business and education.

Alvarez began working on the project as soon as he was sworn in. He secured $25 million for the city’s Millennium Library, which will open next fall and host one of the first degree programs. And he introduced a law to preserve the accumulated land for the university project and another for form a working group to lead campus development.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed that law this month, authorizing the Southern District Higher Education Task Force to study higher education facility management models, including how different university systems interact, how they will share authority and resources and how to pay for the new campus. It will include representatives from the Cal State and UC systems, Southwestern College, the Legislature, the city and the local high school district. Its project report is due by July 2027.

The initial phase of the campus will cost about $2.17 billion, according to an architectural report, and will consist of a “walkable campus gathered around a central open space.” Concept drawings show light-filled buildings with wall-to-wall windows and walkways winding around landscaped common areas and ornamental ponds.

The task force will review those plans and decide when to start construction and how to finance it. Although the entire campus has yet to break ground, Chula Vista University is slated to begin degree programs next year.

“Although the ultimate goal is a college campus, it also became clear to me that we need and deserve a college education now,” Alvarez said.

In fall 2026, it will offer a bachelor’s degree in nursing in classrooms at the Millennial Library, which is now scheduled to open at the same time.

It will also introduce degrees in industrial psychology from San Diego State, business administration, computer information systems and cybersecurity from Cal State San Marcos, and public health from UC San Diego. In the fall of 2027, Cal State San Marcos will add degrees in bilingual speech pathology and human development. All of these programs will be located at Southwestern College.

Supporters are also exploring the potential for accelerated degrees in hospitality, kinesiology and public administration from San Diego State, Alvarez said. They are discussing cross-border programs with Mexican universities. And they can collaborate on film and TV programs with the upcoming Chula Vista Entertainment Complexproduction studio to open at Millennial Library.

These joint ventures between institutions and locations are not typical, but Alvarez points to nearby Cal State San Marcos, now one of CSU’s fastest-growing schools. It launched its first programs as a San Diego State high school satellite in 1979 before expanding to a nearby shopping center and then building its campus on a former chicken ranch a decade later.

“My research has shown that a world-class university often begins with humble beginnings,” Alvarez said.

As part of their planning, Alvarez and other supporters visited Aurora Campus in Denver Colorado. It is a hybrid facility that hosts Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and the University of Colorado Denver. However, Alvarez said Chula Vista University will be unique to California.

“We’re building something new, so we have to figure out how to do it,” he said. “They will also work to identify funding sources for both the construction of the physical campus and the long-term operation of the university campus. These are big commitments that we need to make.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.