In 2005 The Regents of the University of California erected the first American research institution of the 21st century. The location? Merced, California. Situated between Modesto and Fresno, the town boasts a population of 80,000 in a county of about 200,000.
Yes, dear SCVTalk readers – while we were loading up on home equity, trading in Excursions for Hummers and squabbling about traffic on the Newhall Pass, little Merced bagged the UC system’s tenth campus.
A few months ago, SCVTalk drew out comparisons between SCV and Irvine, CA. Chief among the differences, we argued, is Irvine’s enviable 3:1 jobs:housing ratio – driven mainly by the presence of UCI, a gift from the City and developers to the Regents five years before the town sprouted up.
Before you pack up for that spread in Turlock… of course, having a research institution in one’s own backyard isn’t an instant job creator. The planted seed needs time to germinate. Universities continuously enrich a community with new, smart blood guided under the tutelage of seasoned research leaders. Their innovations hasten entrepreneurialism, which flows benefit back to the school, and the virtuous cycle continues. Jobs are the sweet nectar of the investment, which will take leadership, wrangling, back room deals, private money, cheap or free dirt, and a hell of a lot of patience.
But oh, the result.
I’d argue that we’ve gotten great mileage out of City’s pro-business stance – perhaps as much as the initiative can give, Disney’s nascent presence notwithstanding. But gains from here will for the most part be incremental. To jump the 1:1 jobs:housing hurdle in this Valley, we need something beyond Cash for Cell phones. This isn’t a novel concept for our valley, but it’s a curious omission from the draft General Plan guiding OVOV.
With our educated populous, an immediate pipeline of gifted students (backed up by some of the best primary, secondary and vocational education systems in the region), a notable base of leading edge companies (Advanced Bionics, Specialty Labs, Boston Scientific, Woodward HRT all come to mind), ideal geography (equidistant to UCSB and UCLA), SCV has a platform and environment that would make a fine campus for a research institution.
Sure, California’s university systems are a complete shambles. That will get sorted out – this is a long term play for both of us. And who said it has to be a branded UC? We can be a research-focused extension of the UCLA campus, go totally private – Scripps-style, or even a hybrid of sorts. There are startup costs, but what about diverting some of the taxpayer’s business boondoggle money for seed funds, perhaps matching local dollars? The Regents also committed over $1B in capital improvements over the next 10 years. We’d only need a slice of that to get something going.
Where can we put it? That’s the easy part. We have dirt. We have gobs of empty office space. We can start small, perhaps in some of the University Center’s sweet digs. We can even call it UCDVH if necessary. As I think about it, in true SCV fashion, the hardest part will be picking a mascot.
Thank God “Anteater” and “Banana Slug” are already taken.
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