LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – According to the latest state report on unemployment, Lake County’s May jobless rate was at a near three-decade low.

The Employment Development Department’s report showed that Lake County’s May unemployment rates was 4.9 percent, down from a revised 5.6 percent in April 2017, and below the year-ago estimate of 5.9 percent.

The jobless rates reported for both April and May are the second lowest and lowest, respectively, since 1990, according to the Employment Development Department’s online data library.

California’s jobless rate for May was 4.7 percent, down from 4.8 percent in April. In May 2016, the statewide unemployment rate was 5.5 percent.

The statewide May jobless rate tied the record low that occurred in November-December 2000, according to the California Employment Development Department.

The state’s unemployment rate is derived from a federal survey of 5,500 California households.

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nationwide unemployment rate in May was 4.3 percent, down from 4.4 percent in April and 4.7 percent in May 2016. Employers nationwide added 138,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in May.

The late spring and summer months tend to be see drops in unemployment thanks to the farming season, and the same has been true so far this year.

During May, Lake County’s farming industry, reported under the “total farm” category, showed the biggest growth in jobs, with a 35.9-percent increase. It’s also up 7.7 percent on a year-over-year basis.

In the “total nonfarm” category, local job numbers grew by 1.6 percent in May, and by 3.9 percent over the previous year.

Other industry subcategories showing growth over the month included goods producing, 4.2 percent; private service providing, 1.6 percent; and service providing, 1.4 percent.

Lake County’s unemployment rate in May earned it a ranking of No. 30 out of the 58 counties. The lowest unemployment statewide was reported in San Mateo County, 2.4 percent, while Imperial County had the highest jobless rate statewide, 20.5 percent.

The state’s nonfarm payroll employment grew by 17,600 jobs in May, and California has now gained a total of 2,510,900 jobs since the economic expansion began in February 2010, based on the report.

Nonfarm payroll jobs in California totaled 16,697,500 in May, a net gain of 17,600 jobs from April, according to a survey of 71,000 California businesses that measures jobs in the economy. The year-over change, May 2016 to May 2017, shows an increase of 242,600 jobs, up 1.5 percent.

The federal household employment survey, done with a smaller sample than the survey of employers, showed an increase in the number of employed Californians over the month and the year.

It estimated the number of Californians holding jobs in May was 18,258,000, an increase of 3,000 from April, and up 250,000 from the employment total in May of last year.

The number of unemployed Californians was 898,000 in May – down by 26,000 over the month, and down by 152,000 compared with May of last year, the report said.

The report showed that eight of California’s 11 industry sectors added a total of 29,400 jobs in May.

Government posted the largest jobs increase with a gain of 12,300 jobs, followed by information with a gain of 9,600 jobs. Other sectors adding jobs over the month were trade, transportation and utilities; other services; financial activities; educational and health services; construction; and manufacturing, the report said.

Three industry sectors reported job declines over the month, down a total of 11,800 jobs. The report said that leisure and hospitality posted the largest decrease over the month, down 9,700 jobs, followed by professional and business services, down 1,700 jobs, and mining and logging, down 400 jobs.

In a year-over-year comparison – May 2016 to May 2017 – nonfarm payroll employment in California increased by 242,600 jobs, a 1.5-percent increase.

Nine of California’s 11 industry sectors added a total of 253,200 jobs year-over.

The largest job gains were in educational and health services, up 64,600 jobs, a 2.5-percent increase; government, up 46,900 jobs or 1.9 percent; and leisure and hospitality, up 44,000 jobs or 2.3 percent .

Other sectors that the report showed added jobs over the year were construction; other services; trade, transportation and utilities; professional and business services; financial activities; and information.

Two industry sectors posted job declines over the year for a total loss of 10,600 jobs: manufacturing fell by 8,900 jobs, or 0.7 percent, and mining and logging was down by 1,700 jobs, a 6.9 percent decrease.

In related data, the Employment Development Department reported that there were 354,371 people receiving regular Unemployment Insurance benefits during the May survey week, compared to 388,142 in April and 362,535 in May of last year.

At the same time, new claims for Unemployment Insurance were 38,252 in May, compared with 45,319 in April and 40,779 in May of last year, according to the report.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

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LUCERNE, Calif. – Nearly five years after Marymount California University celebrated the signing of a lease to use the Lucerne Castle as its Northern California campus, university officials abruptly ordered an exit from the facility without giving prior notice to students, staff, partner organizations or the county of Lake, which owns the building.

It’s a move that local leaders call both shocking and disappointing, and one that leaves students currently working toward degrees or those set to begin classes in the fall in an uncertain position.

The action also violates the university’s lease agreement with the county, signed in 2012, according to County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson.

“We’re very disappointed,” said Huchingson.

Early last Tuesday morning, a moving van arrived arrived at the Castle, which Marymount, or MCU, had dubbed the Lakeside Campus, at 3700 Country Club Drive.

All of the building’s furnishings were removed, and the university’s IT director came to remove all of the servers and audio visual equipment from the classrooms, according to county officials.

“Everything is gone,” said Huchingson.

Michelle Scully, formerly the campus executive director who now works in the County Administrative Office on projects including the Lucerne Castle’s use, said that the action to move the equipment was taken unbeknownst to the campus staff or the county.

Kathy Windrem, the campus’ enrollment coordinator, told Lake County News that she wasn’t at work that day when the move occurred, and confirmed that she had no idea it was about to take place, or that the university had planned to leave, although she knew officials were considering making some kind of change.

Scully said Windrem notified her afterward of what had taken place. She responded to the campus to take pictures and video for the purposes of documentation.

Huchingson said MCU’s actions came about 10 days after Dr. Lucas Lamadrid, the university’s president since April 2016, met with her and Scully to discuss operations at the building.

“At that point the discussion was that their enrollments were low,” said Huchingson.

There was discussion about potentially transferring the lease agreement to another university, but because the lease didn’t specifically allow for that, Huchingson said she told Lamadrid that they were willing to explore it.

In December, the county already had agreed to a lease revision which allowed it to take back use of a larger portion of the building to reduce MCU’s costs, as Lake County News has reported.

Huchingson said she told Lamadrid that they would get back in touch with him before a June 10 university trustees meeting where the campus was going to be discussed.

She said what they would find out later was that Lamadrid was there for a different reason. “He wasn’t honest with us about actually being here for the purpose of tagging the furniture,” with that furniture subsequently removed. 

“He didn’t tell us that,” she said. “So we had no idea that they were vacating until later.”

Windrem said Lamadrid showed up on Friday, May 26, as Memorial Day weekend was to start. She opened the building for him, having been told he was there to help conduct an inventory of the building’s furnishings. Instead, preparations were being made for removing all of the items.

Those actions came two weeks ahead of the MCU trustees’ vote to leave the campus.

Lake County News contacted Lamadrid’s office requesting an interview on the actions taken at the Lucerne campus.

A written statement attributed to Lamadrid was sent via email to Lake County News in response to that request.

“The Marymount California University (MCU) Board of Trustees unanimously voted on June 10, 2017 to exit the Castle site at Lake County. MCU displayed good faith throughout the years investing significant resources in the Lake County initiative, including improvements to the site, extremely generous financial aid packages to the students, reducing the tuition and fees to under that of the California State University system, and hiring an on-site enrollment coordinator. Nonetheless, despite all of these good faith efforts on the part of the university, enrollment numbers were low and the initiative proved to be financially unsustainable. MCU remains committed to teaching out its Lake County students to degree completion. Continuing Lake County students have the option of transferring to the Southern California campus or continuing their degrees on-line with MCU, without any loss of time. MCU will honor the 2016-17 Lakeside tuition rate for these students until December 2018. This teach out plan has been approved by WSCUC, the university’s regional accrediting agency. It is the University’s understanding that the County has also been in contact with another university for the last couple of months and MCU will assist the students to transfer to that university should they wish to do so.”

Neither Lamadrid nor his office responded to Lake County News’ followup questions on issues including the university’s failure to notify the county and why advertising initiatives to promote enrollment at the campus had dwindled noticeably since last year.

As for Lamadrid’s claims about “investing significant resources in the Lake County initiative, including improvements to the site,” county officials weren’t sure what he was talking about, since it was the county – primarily through redevelopment funds – that renovated the building into a modern facility, including an elevator to meet ADA guidelines for public access.

Scully said she thought Lamadrid was possibly referring to the furniture that had been purchased for the building as well as an IT system. She said the original IT system had previously been removed as had a large amount of the furniture, which Windrem said was taken to Southern California last summer.

Those changes had spurred community concerns that MCU was preparing to leave. Provost Dr. Ariane Schauer visited the campus in January to speak with community members as well as officials from local community colleges and addressed those concerns.

At that time, Schauer discussed the redesign of the MCU Lakeside class schedule, in which they created hybrid classes that met in person and online alternating weeks in order to allow students to finish coursework at home.

She described efforts to increase enrollment and also had lauded the campus’ adjunct faculty. In a brainstorming session with community members, ideas on how to promote enrollment were put forward, including using local teachers to promote the university, an idea Schauer appeared to embrace.

However, it’s not clear if over the next several months any of those suggestions were implemented.

Privately, she also told staff that only fall – and not spring – enrollments were being accepted at that time, with the goal of growing enrollment to financially sustainable levels. The campus, she said, had to be self-supporting, with any cash outlays supported by students.

It was also communicated to staff that Lamadrid wanted to keep the campus but was not willing to do so if it meant laying off staff at the main campus.

Lake County’s first four-year university

Marymount California University – known as Marymount College until 2013 – is a private Catholic university based in Rancho Palos Verdes in Southern California. It also has a campus in San Pedro. 

Lucerne was its third campus, with the lease agreement signed in 2012 and the campus opening for classes in 2014.

The school has been a domestic nonprofit registered with the California Secretary of State’s Office since July of 1948.

The most recent IRS filings available for the campus through Guidestar – for the year 2014, when Michael Brophy was still the university president – reported that MCU’s assets totaled $47.4 million, of which $43 million was revenue and $41.1 million was expenses.

The county of Lake purchased the Lucerne Castle – formerly the Lucerne Hotel – with redevelopment funds in 2010. 

Saving and restoring the historic 1920s-era building was a goal for then-County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox, who over the years has been instrumental in preserving other historic sites in the county, including what is now the Courthouse Museum in downtown Lakeport and the Lower Lake Schoolhouse.

The Castle was restored and the county set about looking for a tenant, ultimately reaching an agreement with Marymount and President Brophy.

Part of the impetus for bringing a four-year university campus to Lake County was to allow residents to either start or finish their degrees without having to travel far from home.

Brophy had been an enthusiastic champion of having a rural Northern California campus, and a clear fan of Lake County and the building itself, making a point of visiting when he could.

In 2012, MCU and the county finalized and signed a 15-year lease agreement for the 75,000-square-foot building and its accompany seven-acre property. An October dedication ceremony was held, with classes opening in the fall of 2014.

The original lease called for MCU to pay the county $1 a year for the use of the building up until July 2018. At that point MCU was to begin to pay the county a 50-percent portion of the revenue it generated at the campus, which was not to be less than $85,000 or more than $250,000 annually.

Huchingson said under her predecessor, Matt Perry, the lease was amended so that those 50-percent payments would begin a year later, in July 2019, in order to give the university a foothold.

“We’ve bent over backwards,” said Huchingson.

Then in June 2015, Brophy announced he was leaving to take the president’s job at Benedictine University in Illinois. At that time, university officials said they had no reason to believe the change in leadership would impact the Lakeside Campus.

During the year that followed, with the university under interim leadership, classes continued, and the county’s partnership with MCU had still appeared promising.

Lamadrid was named Brophy’s successor in April 2016, the same month as Huchingson took over as county administrative officer.

Not long after she began her new job, Huchingson said she met with Lamadrid, who told her that enrollment numbers were down.

He asked if the county would contribute financially; Huchingson said he wanted $100,000. “He explained that MCU was having financial problems,” she said.

“Of course the county could not and would not do that,” Huchingson said of the financial contribution.

She said her office also obtained budget numbers for the university and found that the financial problems were actually in Southern California – not Lucerne, where the campus was running very efficiently and doing well.

“It was ironic that he wanted us to contribute financially when our campus wasn’t the problem,” she said.

Lamadrid made an appearance at the campus ahead of the its first graduation ceremony in May 2016. The event had featured speaking appearances by Cox – then a university board member – and Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg, a member of the Friends of Marymount California University Lakeside Campus.

Later in the year, MCU would retrieve large amounts of furniture, Windrem said, explaining that MCU initially had estimated there would be a lot more students and so had equipped the building accordingly.

The county had encouraged MCU to stay when Lamadrid asked for money, said Huchingson. The county agreed to help the university get a better deal on its Internet service and received the Board of Supervisors’ approval in December for a lease amendment to take back responsibility for more of the building’s space, with the intention of starting to look for other compatible businesses and entities.

In a December statement to Lake County News regarding that lease amendment, Lamadrid said the amendment showed “the collaborative relationship between Lake County and Marymount California University,” adding, “The county is helping the university with the temporary dip in enrollment and the presence of the county at the castle enhances the university.”

He’ also indicated that in the spring he and Schauer planned on meeting with county leaders “to share a new and exciting plan for MCU Lakeside which will expand the accessibility of the university throughout Lake and the surrounding counties.”

While Windrem had not gotten any direct indication that MCU planned to leave, she said university officials were complaining about the campus’ performance.

“We have not been able to meet the projections and to meet the numbers that they wanted and needed to make this a viable campus,” she said. “We were aware of that.”

“It’s been hard to reach the number that they were hoping,” said Windrem, who although she didn’t have firm numbers on how many students they wanted for a viable program, estimated it was between 30 and 40.

When classes had begun in August 2014, MCU Lakeside’s enrollment – drawing primarily from Lake County, with a population of about 65,000 – was estimated at 30 students for both bachelor’s and master’s degree students, as Lake County News has reported. 

For comparison, Schauer told Lake County News at the time said that when MCU started its bachelor’s program in 2010, it had 40 students at its campuses in Rancho Palos Verdes and San Pedro, which draw from across the large population center in Southern California.

Windrem said she believed 16 new students had registered for classes this fall at the Lakeside Campus.

Over the past year, MCU’s outreach efforts – including advertising on a billboard along Highway 29 and in local publications – were rolled back. 

“They put less money toward outreach in the last year,” said Windrem.

Windrem said much of the more recent enrollment outreach – which had continued up until May, when graduation occurred – had included having tables at community colleges, speaking at local schools, sending letters about continuing education opportunities to county employees and distributing press releases.

“There certainly could have been more outreach by all of us,” Windrem said.

Windrem said the pool of potential students also was small because MCU’s bachelor’s program was limited to three majors – psychology, business and liberal arts – with only upper division classes. “That narrows the market.”

When the issue of outreach was raised, Huchingson said MCU officials would respond that they were trying. She said they weren’t going to grow in enrollment unless they went out and pursued it.

Huchingson said the county did what it could by helping with outreach to its own staff, which she herself participated in even before become county administrative officer.

As for the real reasons behind MCU’s diminishing outreach efforts, Huchingson said, “I think the priorities of this new president changed things dramatically.”

In April, MCU’s “Channels” newsletter mentioned upcoming commencements and events at the main campus, but did not mention the Lakeside Campus graduation planned for the following month.

In May, MCU put out a public relations piece on Lamadrid, hailing his first year’s accomplishments, which the university said included increasing enrollment through a number of initiatives, although specifics about numbers were not offered.

One of those initiatives included striking a deal with a Southern California dealership to have students buy discounted Mini Coopers, which MCU would pay off if students graduated in four years.

He also championed upgrades to the Rancho Palos Verdes campus that included placing Adirondack chairs beneath trees to allow students to look out over the Pacific Ocean and watch migrating whales, adding new lounge furniture to the pool deck, constructing a saltwater swimming pool for student recreation and adding to the residential campus an outdoor barbecue area with a wood-burning pizza oven, a sand volleyball court, an enlarged fitness center, townhome interior improvements and new lush landscaping. 

Nowhere in any of his list of priorities or accomplishments was there any mention of the Lakeside Campus.

Cox, who is no longer on the MCU board but remains committed to finding other options for the building, said he’s dismayed by the university’s actions.

“Marymount's apparent decision to vacate its Lakeside Campus facility is disappointing, to say the least,” he said. “As far as I know their lease agreement with the County is still in effect so I'm uncertain how they will be able to comply with the terms and intent of that agreement, without having an actual presence in the building.”

The violation of the lease also raises the question of whether or not the Board of Supervisors will choose to take legal action.

Huchingson said this week that the developments were still too new to speculate as to what the board might do. “It would be the board’s decision of course but no movement yet.”

Because of the terms of the lease, MCU doesn’t technically owe the county any money. But the lease document clearly sets out the intent to create a vibrant educational program, Huchingson said. 

“Obviously that isn’t happening,” she said. “I don’t think they’re really meeting the terms that were intended.”

She added, “We’re greatly concerned for the students who are halfway in.”

Rather than a financial loss to the county, MCU’s departure constitutes a loss in the hoped-for improvement to the local community and its economy, and greatly diminishes the vision of having a four-year university in Lake County, Huchingson said.

She said the county is continuing to look at other possible tenants. “We don’t have a tenant that would take up a major portion of the space yet.”

One of the possibilities is being pursued by Supervisor Jim Steele and Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, who would like to see a University of California, Davis lab and associated program locate there, Huchingson said.

Huchingson said the county also has received a lot of interest in short-term uses, such as for meetings and conferences, which in recent years has been a popular use for the building.

The lease provided for the county’s ability to use all of the facilities when classes were not in session. However, with MCU taking all of the equipment and furniture, a county department head training that had been scheduled for Thursday had to be moved, Huchingson said.

Falkenberg, who had been involved in the effort to explore options for the building since its purchase by the county in 2010, said the Lake County Office of Education also has used the Castle as a training and conference center.

He said the agreement between MCU and the county had included a decision to make certain improvements at the county’s expense, with the concept that those facilities would then be available for rent to other agencies.

But without furniture, desks and chairs, projectors and technical infrastructure, Falkenberg said the building can’t meet those needs.

Left in the dark

MCU officials carried out their hurried departure ahead of telling their plans to partnering educational institutions, students and staff, Lake County News has confirmed.

“It happened before I was notified,” said Dr. Richard Smith, an adjunct professor who lives in Kelseyville and has taught business management at the Lakeside Campus for three years. “I had no indication that it was going to happen.”

He said there was an inkling of something possibly about to happen due to the attitude of MCU officials who had traveled to the campus for the May graduation ceremony.

However, he said university officials were very unclear about their plans, noting there was “no telegraph of the punch at all.”

Smith would find out about the university leaving in a Thursday email from Scully. On Friday, Smith received an email from Lamadrid saying what exactly was happening, including the board of trustees vote.

“It was very short and fairly terse,” Smith said.

The email, which Smith shared with Lake County News, is addressed to “the Marymount Community.”

“I write to inform you that the MCU Board of Trustees has approved the decision to exit the Lakeside campus, teach out continuing students according to the approved Teach Out Plan, and not take in any new students. This is an operational decision made in light of enrollment patterns and financial projections, and in accordance with the institution’s accreditation parameters. We remain committed to our continuing students’ degree completion, and I ask that your offices support these MCU students as they pursue their degree with us at a distance or seek transfer out advising,” the email stated.

Smith said he’s heard from no one else associated with the campus – neither administrators nor students – since the actions were taken.

He compared the university’s actions to a line from Paul Simon’s song, “Fifty ways to leave your lover”: “Slip out the back, Jack.”

Early this week, students were still finding out about the campus closure.

Graduate student Barbara Clark – who had received her bachelor’s degree at MCU as part of its first graduating class of 13 in May 2016 – found out when contacted by Lake County News for comment for this story.

Clark said she’s due to finish her coursework for her master’s degree in business administration in August.

During the interview with Lake County News, Clark texted a friend who is also in the business administration master’s program at MCU Lakeside and due to finish in August. Her friend also hadn’t heard anything about the closure of the campus until that point.

Later on Monday night, Clark said she found she had just received in the mail a letter, dated June 14 and postmarked June 15, from MCU announcing its departure, stating the teach out options and emphasizing that the university is “absolutely committed to your degree completion.”

MCU had worked with Mendocino College and Woodland Community College on transfer agreements to assist with students from those community colleges making easy transitions into the school.

Mendocino College spokeswoman Jessica Silva said she spoke to Superintendent/President J. Arturo Reyes on Monday about MCU’s exit.

“He was not made aware of Marymount’s departure,” said Silva.

Silva was following up with Mendocino College’s dean of instruction, vice president of instruction and director of its Lake Center campus in Lakeport to see if any of them had received any notification. As of late Monday, there was no confirmation of any contacts.

Annette Lee, executive dean of Woodland Community College’s campuses in Clearlake and in Colusa County, they they also were not made aware of it.

“It’s completely news to me,” she said Monday.

“We all were rooting for it to be successful,” said Lee.

She added, “I am surprised that It happened so suddenly, without any communication to us. That’s the shocking thing.”

Woodland Community College has a lot of former students who have graduated from MCU, and Lee said Woodland will now start reaching out to them to see what kind of support they need.

As for the potential impact on local schools, Falkenberg said of MCU’s action, “I don’t think there’s a direct impact on working with the schools, but there certainly is a cultural shift that’s important.”

That cultural shift is the importance of looking at students as lifelong learners. Even if they don’t attend a college or university, “Most every student leaving high school now needs to continue their education in some capacity” for the purposes of promotion and increasing career opportunities, Falkenberg said.

He said he also found out from Scully about MCU leaving.

While he commended MCU for taking the risk, he wished there had been work on a long-term transition plan. 

“That would also mean making a commitment to seeing it through and making an organized transition plan for your exit as well. But that didn’t happen. We feel there was some deceit involved in this decision,” he said.

Falkenberg said MCU has failed to follow through on its commitments both to the community and the Friends of Marymount California University Lakeside, which has raised more than $20,000 for scholarships to assist local students through efforts such as the popular Distinguished Speaker Series.

About $8,000 remains to be distributed, and Falkenberg said he’s now begun a conversation with MCU to explore the options for those funds.

With MCU being the fiscal agent for the Friends group, Falkenberg suspects the university would refuse to return the money to donors and instead insist that it belongs to them.

He said he so far has an initial commitment from Kathleen Ruiz – MCU’s vice president of finance and administration, and chief financial officer – for using those remaining dollars to support Lake County students.

The teach out plan

Lamadrid said MCU had received approval from its regional accrediting agency, WSCUC – or the WASC Senior College and University Commission – for its “teach out” plan for students enrolled at the Lakeside Campus.

The MCU Lakeside Campus teach out plan offers three options to students currently enrolled in bachelor’s programs:

• Continue their program by transferring to the Southern California campus, where their lower Lakeside tuition rate and fees will be honored through December 2018. Requests for room and board are subject to space availability and regular MCU room and board pricing.

• Complete the program through MCU online courses in the same degree program or in the Liberal Arts program. Lower division and preparation for major courses will be referred to the local community colleges. Any course substitutions or waivers require the approval of the program chair. Students may earn some college credit through approved internships. MCU will honor the Lakeside tuition rate and fees through December 2018.

• Receive individual transfer advising if they seek to transfer to another four-year institution.

WASC President Mary Ellen Petrisko told Lake County News that MCU came to the accreditation body after the June 10 board of trustees meeting to seek approval of the teach out plan.

“That plan was approved,” Petrisko said.

She said students would have been told after – and not before – the plan’s approval.

Petrisko did not indicate the plan’s approval was contingent on anything, such as upholding transfer agreements. She said if there were specific agreements about transferring, then that would also have been looked at prior to giving the plan the OK.

Asked if WASC follows up in such cases to monitor how plans are carried out, Petrisko said, “Ordinarily, no,” although there might be followup if certain locations are discussed.

“It is not a terribly common occurrence,” Petrisko said of colleges and universities pursuing teach out plans. 

However, she said it does happen at institutions that develop locations that, for whatever reason, are closed. 

What is required, she said, is that students always are taken care of to the very best of the institution’s ability. “So it really depends on the location.”

For students who are concerned by MCU’s actions or who suffer negative impacts from the decision, there is a public comments and complaint process, which can begin at a page on WASC’s Web site, Petrisko said.

If it’s determined there is a serious issue, WASC would follow up. “Otherwise, those things would be kept for the next time there is a visit,” she said, referring to the visits WASC makes to institutions as part of maintaining accreditation.

She said she did not know if MCU had any prior complaints filed with WASC.

A huge achievement

By sheer coincidence, earlier this year Windrem had notified university officials that June 15 would be her last day. 

It was a decision that she had made due to a variety of other personal and family commitments, and which she felt was based on good timing, not because of any idea of what changes might have been in the offing.

Although she pointed out numerous concerns in the university’s operations, she said, “I’m certainly not disgruntled.”

However, she said it’s important to be upfront with people.

“I think that they don’t have a real good understanding of our county’s culture and the dynamics and so possibly that had an impact on the outreach, I don’t know,” she said of the MCU administration.

WIndrem said she’s satisfied that MCU is working with the students on alternatives, but acknowledges the first option – moving to Southern California – is not workable for most.

Taking care of the students for Windrem is “the single most important thing.”

She said it also is important to remember the positive aspect – that about 30 people now have bachelor’s degrees in Lake and Mendocino counties because of the MCU Lakeside Campus. 

Windrem called that a “huge achievement.”

“We will always celebrate that piece,” she said.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.