Printed with the permission of the OC Metro
Orange County's Business Lifestyle Magazine . July 29, 1999

By Kevin O'Leary

Proponents of El Toro international believe a large airport will ensure the future economic growth of Orange County.

There is another, smarter way to achieve the same goal.
 
In stories about the high-tech industry, the Silicon Valley always leads the list. What has been the key to the Silicon Valley phenomenon-the brain power furnished by Standford University and UC Berkeley. What is more important for economic growth? In the Information Age, top-ranked research universities beat airfields any day of the week.

UC Irvine is a first-rate public university. It is not UCLA or UC Berkeley but it now makes the list as one of the top 40 research universities in the nation. Yet, is one first-tier university enough? Locally, Chapman University, Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State are fine schools, but they do not compete nationally for the top professors and students.

What if Orange County had a private university of the stature of Stanford University or the Claremont Colleges? What if we took the El Toro property and said our goal is to build a university the quality of Stanford in Orange County? It could be done and the economic benefits would be huge. Two major-league universities feeding the Irvine Spectrum and other high-tech centers would send our economy into orbit and put Orange County on the national map.

Yes, we can have an airport to bring more tourists to Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm. Or we can generate more top-notch brain power for the information economy of the 21st and 22nd centuries.

While bold, the idea is sound. Colleges get founded and universities move. For example, UCLA came to Westwood in the 1920s after USC turned down a chance to move to the Westside. Pepperdine University moved to Malibu from downtown Los Angeles. UC Irvine began after The Irvine Co. donated the land to the UC system. Up north, Cal State University Monterey Bay has been built on what was formerly Fort Ord. (The land was free, it has a research focus and collaborative ties with nearby UC Santa Cruz.)

And the demand is there. The New York Times recently reported that the competition to get into top-ranked universities and colleges was more fierce in 1999 than ever. The top-ranked colleges in California - Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, Pomona, Claremont McKenna and Cal Tech to name the cream of the crop - are exceedingly difficult to get into. Let's give our children another application address.

Once launched, a top-notch university would have no trouble attracting students and faculty. Great weather, beaches, the Los Angeles region and jobs are the magnets. Location has become more important in academic circles as more spouses of professors and deans have their own careers. Yale University, in backwater New Haven, regularly loses out in recruiting wars because spouses want to pursue more exciting careers in Boston or San Francisco. Orange County has this advantage. Similarly, many of the most famous universities - Columbia and the University of Chicago for example - are in older, deteriorating neighborhoods. UC Irvine has been able to recruit and build top-notch departments in a number of fields because of its location. A new university at El Toro would have the same competitive advantages.

Founding a private university is a mammoth job but it has been done numerous times. Begun in 1885, Stanford University was forged with a fortune made from the railroad boom. Stanford South could be started with the fortunes made from Orange County's real estate and high-tech boom.

One option is to lure an established university to move to El Toro. USC has been mentioned in this regard. However, USC is identified with Los Angeles and would have to become a more "serious" school to be regarded in the same academic league as Stanford. Another possibility - the Claremont Colleges.

Would the Claremont Colleges consider moving from the smog belt to the gentle breezes of Orange County? The Claremont Colleges are an interesting prospect because the Claremont system is basically Stanford University's southern representative. Pomona College is consistently ranked among the top five liberal arts colleges in the nation, sister college Claremont McKenna is ranked in the top 12 and Harvey Mudd College follows closely behind Cal Tech and MIT as the nation's top engineering school.

The comparison to Stanford University goes beyond ranking, in particular for Pomona College, the founding member of the Claremont Colleges. Rumor has it that Pomona officials check what Stanford is charging for tuition and then charge $100 less.

Founded in 1887, Pomona was at a crossroads in the 1920s. Pomona President James Blaisdell decided that instead of following Stanford and Harvard, the model for Pomona would be the Oxford system of cluster colleges. Pomona spun off sister colleges with independent personalities - Scripps in 1926 which continues to be primarily a women's college; Claremont McKenna College in 1946, which has a reputation as one of the leading conservative colleges in the nation; Harvey Mudd in the '50s; and finally the liberal Pitzer College, a sort of Santa Cruz south, in 1963. A graduate school - founded in 1935 and now named the Claremont Graduate University - boasts a leading public policy program and one of the nation's top business schools, The Drucker School of Management, named for the world-famous management guru. The newest addition to the Claremont Colleges, the Keck Graduate Institute for Applied Life Sciences, was launched in 1997.

The Claremont Colleges are a wonderful academic treasure - the virtues of a small college and the resources of a major university when all the campuses are added together.

However, the one major drawback for the growth and future health of the Claremont Colleges is their location at the western edge of the Inland Empire. Being an hour from Los Angeles and the Westside and an hour from central Orange County means the Claremont Colleges are often ignored. It is harder than it should be - given the high quality of the schools - to attract students and faculty. Most Orange County residents have little idea that Pomona College exists but almost everyone knows that Stanford University is the equivalent of Harvard or Yale.

Certainly it would be a big step for the Claremont Colleges to move - but stranger things have happened.

A Stanford or a Claremont at El Toro - that is what we should be aiming for on the vacated 4,700 acres. The land is ours and it's free. A second major university to complement UC Irvine is the smartest, sanest and healthiest way to boost the local economy in the coming decades. True, a powerful economy is based on exports, but the weight of software and electronics is tiny compared to autos and steel. We can airfreight out of Ontario and fly from John Wayne and LAX.

A major university at El Toro is also the way to unite the Orange County community around the project. It is a win-win for all involved. More Orange County students will advance to college. More start-ups will emerge. More entrepreneurs will create more jobs. More people will come to Orange County to raise families. Tech Coast will have its capital here.
 
The Millennium Plan includes the idea of a higher education consortium in its plan for El Toro and thus the idea of using part of the land for higher education is not new. A "college campus/education center" received the highest score of any base-reuse option when Project 99 surveyed Orange County residents.

But the Millennium Plan is basically "Irvine South," a potluck of research and development, light industry, education, a central park, retail commercial center and an outdoor sports complex. Nothing stands out as the center piece. The 4,700 acres will blend into the rest of master-planned South County.

Similarly, the idea of a major airport the size of San Francisco International at El Toro is a plan that lacks imagination. It is also a win-loss. Yes, Newport Beach residents win if John Wayne is eventually closed. But the rest of the county loses the investment made in John Wayne's modern terminal and parking. True, some O.C. businesses would benefit from added flights of passengers and cargo. But the new airport would be a terrible blow to the quality of life in South County. In addition to incessant noise, it will add congestion, pollution and low-wage jobs. And importantly, El Toro international will poison politics for years to come. It already has.

Anyone out there willing to play Leland Stanford?