Plans for a new conservation center at CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI), to be built in partnership with the Santa Barbara Zoo is one of several new initiatives, programs and partnerships CSUCI President Richard Yao will review during the annual State of the University address Friday, April 19.
The event is sponsored by the West Ventura County Business Alliance (WVCBA).
The public is invited to attend the event, which is part of the WVCBA’s CSUCI Connection Breakfast, 8-9:30 a.m. at CSUCI’s Grand Salon. Tickets are $45 for WVCBA members, $50 for non-members and may be purchased online.
“This is my third year as president of CSU Channel Islands, and we’ve had challenges, to be sure,” Yao said. “We’ve also had tremendous growth in cooperation with the surrounding community and our valuable business partners.
“The State of the University event provides opportunity for us to share what our community partners have enabled us to accomplish on campus, not only with our academic and scholarship programs, but with the brick-and-mortar construction to give us the physical capacity to keep growing,” he said.
“The dedication, support, and level of collaboration we enjoy with the communities we serve has been extraordinary,” Yao said.
Awards will also be part of the presentation, with the Parker Hannifin Corporation named Business Partner of the Year; Women’s Economic Ventures (WEV) named Non-Profit Partner of the Year; and CSUCI Professor of Biology Ruben Alarcón named Faculty Partner of the Year.
There will be an update on the CSUCI conservation center from Jennifer Perry, professor of anthropology and executive director of Regional Education Partnerships; and Rich Block, president/CEO of the Santa Barbara Zoo.
The conservation center will be the first of its kind in the nation as a zoo-accredited and managed facility at a public university. Designed to be welcoming to animals, students and community members, it will be located behind Modoc Hall near the main entrance to campus.
The zoo works with a number of government agencies to save threatened species. One urgent need is a place to house snowy plover eggs, which have been abandoned on California’s beaches north of Pismo because of human activity.
“The zoo will take those eggs and incubate them and hatch the little birds,” Perry said. “The zoo in Santa Barbara is completely out of room and having to turn these eggs away, which is part of the urgent need for CSUCI’s conservation center.”
The red-legged frog is another endangered animal significant to the region, appearing in Chumash rock art and still honored in the artistic and ceremonial traditions of the Chumash people.
Other community sponsors in partnership with WVCBA for the event are Premier America Credit Union, Harrison Industries, Southern California Edison, Dignity Health, and UCLA Health.