The vote approved the revised master plan as well as an increase in the campus' master plan enrollment capacity from 25,000 to 35,000 full-time equivalent students (FTEs). That growth is equivalent to 1.6 percent annual growth over 30 years. The trustees also certified the final environmental impact report on the plan.            

In remarks to the trustees, CSUN President Jolene Koester called the adoption of the new campus master plan "a critical step in our ability to plan for CSUN's future."            

Koester in spring 2004 appointed a 25-member campus committee to lead a comprehensive review of CSUN's existing master plan, and to work collaboratively on an updated master plan envisioning the campus' future layout and design.

            Praising Koester and her staff for their leadership on the project, CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed also saluted all the Northridge participants for their patience in creating a plan that anticipates the evolving educational needs of the region.

            Headed by CSUN finance department chair William Jennings, committee members devoted nearly two years to consultation and study, to a comprehensive environmental review process, to student photo surveys and a series of open forums that sounded out both campus stakeholders and San Fernando Valley communities.

            "The campus did everything it could to involve and include the community and the broader San Fernando Valley region," Koester said. She described the process as "very transparent and open."

            Specifically, the plan defines sites for about 1.9 million square feet of future campus academic and support facilities to accommodate the increased FTE enrollment. Near-term projects will include a 1,700-seat performing arts center; a 163,000-square-foot arts, media and communications complex; a parking structure for nearly 2,000 spaces and a centrally located mass transit hub for students, faculty, staff and community members.

            It also proposes the development of about 600 on-campus faculty/staff housing units, mostly on the north end of campus, and allows for student housing, parking and transportation sufficient to handle enrollment growth while maintaining desirable open space.

            Among those supporting the plan at the trustees meeting was Los Angeles Valley College President Tyree Wieder, a CSUN alumna. Speaking for Mission and Pierce Colleges as well as Valley College, President Wieder said CSUN is the "campus of choice" for students at those institutions.

            "We want to make sure we are going to have a place for our students to transfer," she said, adding that CSUN is "an important part of the economy of the San Fernando Valley."

            William Watkins, CSUN's associate vice president for student affairs, underscored the need to expand on-campus housing for students, as proposed by Envision 2035. With students crowding the waiting list for the campus' current 2,100 beds, the 2,500 extra beds to be added for students during the life of the plan are a high priority, he noted.

            "I believe the master plan reflects the mission, goals and values of the university and the CSU," Watkins said.

            Northridge's art department chair David Moon told trustees the vision for faculty housing is an idea whose time has come. Escalating local housing prices in the past five or six years, Moon said, have created "great difficulties" for the university in the hiring and retaining of faculty and staff.

            "This is a very typical story that I hear throughout our campuses," he added.

            A representative of Los Angeles City Councilman Greig Smith raised concerns about responsibility for traffic project costs connected with campus plan changes. State law and court rulings, however, indicate the CSU is exempt from payment for campus plan-related improvements outside of the CSUN campus.

To learn more about Envision 2035, visit its Web site at www.csun.edu/envision2035/.

California State University, Northridge has 33,000 full- and part-time students and offers63 bachelor's and 48 master's degrees as well as 28 education credential programs. Founded in 1958, CSUN is among the largest single-campus universities in the nation and the only four-year public university in the San Fernando Valley. The university serves as the intellectual, economic and cultural heart of the Valley and beyond.