I’m a forever fan of my alma mater. We called it Long Beach State when I was there. It was not surprising when I was on campus this last Saturday to see and experience the excitement all over again. Incoming freshman with their families and friends were pouring out of the Pyramid after their orientation, and making their way up campus to join the thousands of Beach fans enjoying the Kaleidoscope open house event.
My years and memories at this great University date back to the early ’60s when enrollment was a little over 10,000 and it was known then as a “teachers” college. What a difference to now see the largest campus in the State College system right here in our city. It seems like just yesterday that I was in my Entomology (bug) and Zoology (animal) classes. We would collect our samples in a flood control slew right where Brotman Hall now sits on lower campus.
The youthful energy and enormous opportunities that this great school now offers can’t be underestimated. My only concern is that we as citizens and our City with its extensive government operations haven’t bonded well enough to value the University as a resource for evaluating and advancing a better way of life for all of us. This higher place of learning has the intellectual resources to help our city move forward in technology and research related to matters such as monitoring noise and air quality at our airport, water pollution, wetlands restoration, local fisheries management, alternate fuels and solar technology, rail and related mass transit innovation, just to site a few.
Our city should be evaluating how our college with its great faculty and students, can be better involved in research, technology and other studies that could help our city. Currently, we outsource too much to other institutions of higher learning and other types of research centers. It would be great to give our University the first shot at addressing our problems.
This win-win policy helps to better develop future leaders for our city. I say we look to take care of home first. There’s no place like it.