Editorial: Learning will yet grow near Camarillo
Nearly three decades ago, after years of stalled negotiations, California State University purchased 200 acres of farmland near Camarillo with the vision of building a campus there. It was seen at the time as the culmination of a long and fitful effort to establish a four-year public university in Ventura County.
It wasn’t long, however, before that plan was abandoned, as the opportunity arose to instead establish the campus at the site of the former Camarillo State Hospital. The university sold the land and used the proceeds to help fund the conversion of the hospital grounds, the site today of CSU Channel Islands.
It can now be said that from every perspective, things have worked out for the best. Going forward, the land will continue to serve agriculture — and it will serve education and research as well.
Much of that same land, 114 acres of it, has been purchased by the University of California to become the site of the UC Hansen Agricultural Research and Extension Center. Collaborating with scientists from UC agricultural colleges at Davis and Riverside, it seems destined to become one of the state’s premier agricultural research facilities.
The possibility for this research jewel is the result of the vision and philanthropy of Thelma Hansen, the last member of a pioneering farm family who upon her death in 1992 established a $12 million trust dedicated to preserving and advancing agriculture in Ventura County.
Hansen was passionate about education and about farming. In the early years of the 20th century, at a time when few women did such things, she studied mathematics at UC Berkeley. She returned to the county in 1921 to help on the family farm.
The UC Cooperative Extension has long been an institution that connects California agriculture with applied research to help growers address such challenges as pest management, efficient irrigation, soil enrichment and water quality. It has a footing in all of California’s 58 counties, often partnering with county governments to enhance its services.
But until Thelma Hansen, it had never been presented with the kind of opportunity that has unfolded in Ventura County. Her gift has enabled the trust, working with UC personnel, to fund research, incorporate agricultural lessons and classroom gardens into public school programs, build public awareness of and appreciation for the industry’s importance to Ventura County, and help design a curriculum for CSUCI’s agricultural studies.
Soon, the possibilities for even greater accomplishments will exist. As Annemiek Schilder, the center’s director, recently told The Star, “We are looking to tackle some big problems.”
The new research center will ultimately include dormitory-style residences for graduate students and visiting scientists as well as test fields to conduct studies. In addition to carrying out its own studies, the center will be able to work more closely with the nearby CSU campus — the same institution that was once envisioned for the site along Beardsley Road.
Not long after the founding of the Hansen Trust, Larry Yee, the emeritus director of the UC Cooperative Extension Ventura County office who worked with Hansen to design the trust, told a reporter that her gift had accomplished “much more than she even imagined at the time.”
The development of the new research center will further elevate Hansen’s legacy. That farmland northwest of Camarillo is destined yet to become a hallowed place of higher learning.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Editorial: Learning will yet grow near Camarillo
