Oxnard College

Coordinates: 34°09′50.98″N 119°09′26.39″W / 34.1641611°N 119.1573306°W / 34.1641611; -119.1573306

Oxnard College is a California-state funded community college located in Oxnard, California. It was established in 1975. It serves the Oxnard Plain cities of Oxnard, Camarillo, and the town of Port Hueneme. The college offers two year degrees including the new California transfer curriculum, as well as career and technical education programs to the local community. The Dental hygienist program consistently ranks in the top of the 5 U.S. programs. Due to its location between the two stations of the Navy Base Ventura County, it is popular among the military personnel stationed there to attend classes. The institution to which most students will transfer is CSUCI (California State University Channel Islands), but students have successfully transferred to Stanford University, UCBerkeley, UCDavis, UCLA, CSUNorthridge and many other institutions.

The college formerly had a television channel, OCTV, which aired educational programming in the Oxnard and Port Hueneme area on Time Warner Cable and Fios. Currently, due to California state budget cuts, OCTV is inactive.

The college lies on a flat plain next to College Park, where the annual California Strawberry Festival is held. Because of the school has not yet grown to the capacity of the site, much of the unused land is leased to nurseries to raise semi-tropical plants in Oxnard's Mediterranean climate. A well-established native plant garden lies near the center of the campus, and changing art exhibits can be seen at the McNish Art Gallery. Numerous student artists display work throughout campus. The college mascot is the Condor. The school colors are royal blue and kelley green.

Oxnard College is part of the Ventura County Community College District along with Moorpark College, and Ventura College.

The current president of Oxnard College is Richard Durán, Ed.D, the Executive Vice President of Student Learning is Erika Endrijonas, Ph.D, formerly of Santa Barbara City College, the president of the Academic Senate is Linda Kama'ila.

Notable faculty include pioneering martial artist Graciela Casillas, English Department Chair Jim Merrill, who also composed the school anthem, sociologist Dr. Marie Butler whose work on Egyptian women, and the status of women in third world banking is well known, Dr. Tomás Salinas, a professor of Chicano Studies who was an early innovator in the field at both Oxnard College and UC Santa Barbara, Dr. Desmond Jones (emeritus), from the London School of Economics, Prof. Jeanette Redding, whose innovations in providing instruction to under-prepared students resulted in Oxnard College's Success Academy, Prof. Amy London Edwards, whose speech tournaments have led to statewide recognition for Oxnard College students, and Dr. Linda Kama'ila, ethnographer of Hawai'i and Native America, and author of articles on ethnopoetics.

Notable programs include Dental Hygiene, whose graduates have consistently had 100% passage rates in the National and State Board exams; Culinary Arts whose students operate the program's Bistro Restaurant during the Spring Term; and the Fire Academy and Emergency Medical Technician programs.

Notable alumni of Oxnard College include artist Veronica Pantoja, the late writer Gerald Schnebly, British musician Fiona Elizabeth Cox, philosopher Vladimir Kalugin and international activist Maria Tapia.

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