Higher Ed for Chula Vista?
The Chula Vista Bayfront development has often been held up as a shining example for job growth and future prosperity. This plan will undoubtedly create jobs; some good, many lower wage, and quite a few temporary construction types. The enormous Millennia project will do much for the same by creating a city within a city. Many residents of our fine city are coming to the conclusion that the very best blueprint for success is a 4-year university and the relatively high paying academic careers that are created. This thought brings me to a meeting of the Mayor’s First Friday breakfast in July.
Advertised as the “University Innovation District Update,” the breakfast at the San Diego Country Club featured short statements by representatives from the city of Chula Vista and master planner Home Fed Corporation. These were followed by a presentation by U3 Advisors, a consultant group.
U3 Advisors has an impressive resumé including work for Cornell, Columbia, and Princeton Universities. As in most cases regarding consultants, a liberal dose of buzzwords were used such as: partnerships, leverage, opportunity, strategic, etc. That is all fine but what is truly needed is not a private college. This Southwest region of the country needs an all-inclusive, diverse model of public education. Think University of California, Chula Vista or California State University, Chula Vista.
We have most of the 375 acres needed in hand with the rest by the end of this year. Now is the time to push hard at the state level to gain any and all approvals necessary. We cannot afford a long drawn-out project that may never reach fruition.
David Danciu
President, Crossroads II
Chula Vista