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Four of Our Own

story by Scott Duke Harris ' 78

The 1996 political season was in full swing and, rather suddenly, administrators at California State University Fullerton found themselves in a jam. More than 200 Orange County civic and business leaders were expected at a university-sponsored forum at The Center Club in Costa Mesa. With only a few hours to spare, the featured speaker had fallen ill and phoned with regrets. A pinch hitter was needed—fast.

A call was placed to state Sen. Jack O’Connell, a leader on education reform and a member of the Titan class of ’73. O’Connell hopped a flight from Sacramento and delivered an impassioned speech for Proposition 203, a bond measure that would ultimately prevail at the polls and raise $3 billion for California education, from kindergarten to the university level.

Five years later, O’Connell had another chance to help his alma mater. The Senate Budget Committee, wrangling over priorities, was poised to postpone $39 million in Proposition 1A funds earmarked for construction of Cal State Fullerton’s planned performing arts center. “They were holding that thing hostage,” recalls Owen Holmes, the university’s director of state and federal relations.

Fortunately for the Titans, O’Connell was on that committee. He persuaded three colleagues to vote with him, and community and university leaders held a groundbreaking ceremony in March for the performing arts center that is scheduled to open in fall 2005. “I was in the right place at the right time,” O’Connell says. “I knew of the need.”

“Jack O’Connell played an invaluable role,” says President Milton Gordon. “He was the main force in helping us get that performing arts center.”

It helps to have influential friends. Cal State Fullerton’s circle of supporters includes a quartet of alumni who hold elective office on the state and federal levels. Rep. Ed Royce and state Sen. Ross Johnson are Republicans, while O’Connell and Assemblyman Lou Correa are Democrats. Taken together, the four men might be considered an informal bipartisan Titan caucus.

In the November 2002 election, O’Connell recorded a landslide victory in the race for California Superintendent of Public Instruction, becoming the first Titan alumnus to achieve statewide office. Rep. Royce, class of ’77, has represented much of north Orange County in Congress since 1992 and previously served a decade in the state Senate. Johnson, class of ’68, claims the distinction as the first person in California history to serve as a party leader in both houses of the state legislature. Now in his 25th year in elective office, Johnson was first elected to the Assembly in 1978 and won election to the Senate in 1995. The most recent Titan alumnus to ascend to the state Capitol is Correa, class of ’80. Since 1998 Correa has represented a district that includes Santa Ana, much of Anaheim and Orange—what he likes to describe as “the heart of Orange County.”

Although their ideologies diverge on many issues, all agree that their personal experience has given them a common appreciation for the role of state universities such as Fullerton in shaping California’s society and economy.

That role is becoming more important as time goes on, say university officials. “I am proud of the strong relationship we have with our state and federal officials, particularly those who call Cal State Fullerton their alma mater,” said Judith Anderson, executive vice president, who has worked personally and through her staff with many elected officials at the local, regional, state and national levels. “Their role in developing public policy ad in allocating resources is vital not only for our campus, but for all of California.”

Occasionally these elected leaders find themselves in a position to offer behind-the-scenes help to their alma mater. Royce, for example, was vital in lobbying the Navy to ensure that part of the old El Toro Marine Air Station would serve as the university’s South County campus. Johnson was instrumental in arranging funding for the university’s telecommunications infrastructure upgrade. Correa, too, played a key role in the El Toro campus saga.

“These guys have been very supportive,” Holmes says. “They have been true to the school. On the whole, anything that has come up legislatively, if they have any control, they have been in the column of Cal State Fullerton.”

Typical Titan Alumni
In many ways, the four men are typical of the students that Cal State Fullerton has served: Three of the four grew up in Anaheim. Their roots range from working class to middle class. When it came to higher education, affordability was a priority. Cal State Fullerton, with its relatively low fees, provided the best opportunity for securing a college education and a brighter future.

Consider Johnson’s biography. Born in 1939, he grew up in Anaheim, a carpenter’s son who became fascinated with politics watching the 1952 Republican Convention “on a little black-and-white TV,” proudly aware that Orange County native Richard M. Nixon was Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s running mate. Johnson became an apprentice ironworker before graduating from Anaheim High School and worked in construction while attending Orange Coast College.

In 1962 he transferred to what was called Orange County State College, then in its second year of operation. “I even participated in a little protest to get the name changed,” Johnson recalls. Many students, it seems, didn’t like the sound of “Orange County State.” The campus then, he says, consisted of “these little temporary buildings and there were just a few hundred students.”

The future lawmaker pursued his passion for politics at Fullerton, arranging debates between local candidates and becoming active in the Young Republicans organization. On campus he met his future wife, Diane, also a history major. He interrupted his studies to join the Navy, serving as a corpsman in domestic posts, before returning to Fullerton to complete his degree in 1968.

Johnson figures he benefited from the flexibility of higher education in California. “We quite deliberately created a [higher education] system in California where young people and not-so-young people have repeated chances,” he says.

Royce’s background is similar. The son of a supervisor in a box-making factory, Royce grew up in Anaheim and worked weekends in his uncle’s lawn maintenance business while attending Katella High School.

Royce held a series of blue-collar jobs while working toward a degree in business administration. He also developed an interest in politics. Walking across campus one day, he noticed a heated conversation between “a young woman, a redhead” who was staffing a College Republicans table, and three young men, one of whom had rudely knocked her pamphlets to the ground. Royce says he decided to come to the redhead’s aid and managed to restore civility. That encounter led Royce to join the group, which he later chaired.

“The real advantage of the CSU system is that it gives people without means the ability to get a degree in an affordable way,” says Royce, who lives in Fullerton with his wife, Marie, a different redhead. “I think it’s been the backbone of California. It’s what has created the professional class that has helped drive the ingenuity and prosperity of California.”

CSUF Was a Critical Choice
Correa also grew up in Anaheim and attended public school, graduating from Anaheim High. His mother worked as a maid in a hotel near Disneyland, and for many years was the family’s primary breadwinner. “If it wasn’t for Fullerton, I think it would have been a little bit difficult to make it,” he says. “It was the choice that was optimal given my circumstances.”

Although he had been accepted by both UCLA and USC, and had received an Educational Opportunity Program grant, Correa says he chose Fullerton because he would be able to live at home, and he needed some remedial classes. “Fullerton was there to fit the bill. I chose the school with the highest probability of success. I was striving for the American Dream, and that’s where the Cal State system came in handy.”

After graduating from Fullerton, Correa went on to UCLA to earn degrees in law and business. Correa was an investment banker before successfully running for the Assembly in 1998. He lives in Santa Ana with his wife, Esther Reynoso-Correa, and their four children.

Jack O’Connell grew up in Ventura County. His father was a security guard and his mother a nurse. While attending Oxnard High, he decided to enroll at Fullerton on the recommendation of a friend. O’Connell, who majored in history and geography, was one of those rare students who lived in a campus dormitory. He was, as he puts it, “a serious student,” devoting himself more to studies than building a social life.

O’Connell later earned a secondary teaching credential at Cal State Long Beach and taught high school for several years in Ventura County before winning election to the state Assembly in 1982. In 1994 he won election to the state Senate. O’Connell and his wife, Doree, live in San Luis Obispo.

Quiet, Serious Support
The general public, Holmes says, is often unaware of the behind-the-scenes negotiation involved in advancing Cal State Fullerton's agenda. These efforts, he says, rarely make headlines.

Johnson has had the longest history of involvement. In 1985, he promoted the development of more affordable student housing, cobbling together legislation that benefited Fullerton and other Cal State campuses as well. In 1989, Johnson was involved in securing funding for the Science Laboratory Center and setting up the university’s first satellite campus at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.

That satellite campus was serving 1,300 students and straining its limits when the Department of Navy began hearing proposals for the conversion of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. After Orange County voters defeated a bid to convert the property into a commercial airport in March 2002, university officials charted their strategy to secure part of the old base for a new branch campus, applying a full-court political press to win support on the local, county, state and federal levels. Royce and Rep. Christopher Cox, a fellow Republican whose district includes the old base, arranged for President Gordon to make Cal State Fullerton’s case personally with the Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

“I think that was the most important meeting we had in moving that project forward,” Gordon says. “It has required very intense work from a lot of people. There were so many competing entities.”

Without the help of Reps. Royce and Cox, Holmes says, the university may not have been able to lease property that now serves more than 2,300 students, with plans to expand to serve 5,000.

“It was heavy lifting, and it still is,” Gordon adds. “But we have a lot of people who have been supporting us, and we feel really good about it.”

University officials hope they will be able to turn to alumni pols in the years to come, and elected officials say they will try to help when they can.

As the new State Superintendent of Public Instruction, O’Connell figures to take an even deeper interest in Cal State Fullerton and its sister universities. A large majority of California’s elementary and secondary school teachers are trained in the Cal State system. “It plays a huge role and will continue to play a huge role. We need a real emphasis on teacher training, teacher education and teacher recruitment.”

This is one reason why O’Connell, as state schools chief, also sits on the California State University Board of Trustees—another good place for Titans to have one of their own.