Compton College benefiting from takeover by El Camino
After the campus was stripped of accreditation, many were skeptical of nearby school's plan to step in. But students, staff and the community are excited by the ensuing changes, and enrollment is up.
Two years after Compton College was stripped of its accreditation, a multimillion-dollar effort is underway to reestablish the two-year school as an institution of higher learning.
El Camino College, which has assumed management of Compton, has spent $41 million in local bond money to renovate facilities and recently hired three new deans to revamp a threadbare curriculum. The vocational division, which offered 12 programs in practical skills, such as welding and cosmetology, has added two new disciplines -- aerospace and robotics.
When Compton lost its accreditation in 2006, the campus was crumbling under the pressure of state audits that unearthed financial fraud, fake enrollments and missing computer equipment. El Camino in nearby Torrance stepped in, agreeing to oversee the budget while working with a state-appointed special trustee.
Officially, Compton College no longer exists. It's a satellite of El Camino and now goes by the lengthy name of El Camino College Compton Community Education Center.
Many at El Camino cautioned their administration against rushing to the aid of Compton. Some students were worried that they would not have a choice between campuses, while others feared the location, according to Thomas Fallo, president of El Camino.
But Fallo was more concerned that the loss of a college would harm the quality of life in Compton and neighboring communities. He said he did not hesitate to encourage a skeptical Board of Trustees to unilaterally support a partnership with the troubled school.
A lingering stereotype continues to haunt the Compton campus. Rob Pitts, 24, the student body president, said some members of the El Camino administration brought negative impressions with them to the school.
"I have to make sure that [people] are treated like students, not inner-city hoodlums," he said. "We have a stereotype that we're thugs or criminals, but we're here for a reason."
After El Camino assumed control, the college entered what Ann Garten, spokeswoman for El Camino, called the triage stage. Compton's facilities were in bad shape, with leaky roofs and cracked walls. Fallo noticed that students in the area did not seek out other community colleges as an alternative to Compton. They just stopped going to college.
But recent experiences of two Compton residents -- Brian Turner, 22, and his sister, Twana Turner, 24 -- are more encouraging.
