By Jennifer K. Morita

February 01, 2024

Sacramento State’s plan to open a new off-campus center that will serve thousands of students in one of California’s fastest-growing regions has just taken a major step forward.

The CSU Board of Trustees on Jan. 31 approved plans for The Sacramento State Placer Center, which will engage the region through potential joint facilities with community partners, including a library, forensic science lab, conference center, and performing arts building.

Located on 301 acres donated by philanthropist and businessman Eli Broad’s Placer Ranch, Inc., the center is part of a 2,213-acre master-planned community along Highway 65 known as Placer One. Taylor Builders, LLC broke ground on the project in October 2022.

During the meeting, trustees unanimously approved the center’s master plan and a conceptual partnership with Placer County for the forensic science lab, and certified the environmental impact report.

“We are really excited about the support that we have from our Placer County partners, Sierra College, and the unwavering commitment from our CSU Board of Trustees,” Senior Associate Vice President for Placer Center Vajra Watson and Campus Architect Tania Nunez said in a statement following the meeting. “We are ready to start building so that we can best support an innovative model for student success.”

“Sacramento State and the greater Sacramento region are becoming increasingly diverse, and the Placer Center will be a welcoming and inclusive place where students and faculty thrive and the community and individuals will be provided with equitable access." -- Sac State President Luke Wood

Placer Center will serve up to 1,500 full-time equivalent students during the first seven years, and in its initial phase will include an academic building, library, and forensic sciences lab.

The center will be developed in four phases over a period of 25 years, growing to 12,000 full-time equivalent students with a conference center and performing arts center.

“Sacramento State and the greater Sacramento region are becoming increasingly diverse, and the Placer Center will be a welcoming and inclusive place where students and faculty thrive and the community and individuals will be provided with equitable access,” Sac State President Luke Wood said at the meeting.

Demographics are a driving force behind the University’s efforts to open an off-campus center in Placer County, which is the second fastest-growing county in California, and the only one with an increasing elementary school population.

The county is also home to one of Sac State’s largest feeder schools. Sierra College President Willy Duncan said 40% of his students, between 600-1,000 students a year, transfer to Sac State, making it the No. 1 choice for the Rocklin community college.

An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 students commute from Placer County to Sac State each year, costing them additional time and money, Duncan added.

“To me, this is really about access to public higher education in the community. It’s a fantastic opportunity from that standpoint,” he said.

Sac State and Sierra College officials are working on a concurrent enrollment pilot project that could start as early as fall 2025, focusing on majors with the most impacted enrollments, said Watson, a nationally recognized scholar on building equitable educational pathways supporting students through higher education.

“Faculty are excited to be doing something a bit more innovative, creative, and interdisciplinary to map out new ways of thinking about higher education that provides more opportunities and impact,” Watson said. 

“If we do this right, we can create pathways from community college to doctoral degrees with paid academic internships along the way, all at the Placer Center. That is truly an equity game changer.”

Part of the plan for Placer Center is a unique model where the University and Sierra College will share responsibility for student services such as financial aid, admissions and records, tutoring, and counseling. The goal, Wood told trustees at the Jan. 31 meeting, is to develop an integrated experience for students.

“Engaging with students early in their educational journey will enable us to create a seamless transition from one institution to another, eliminating barriers many students encounter as they transition into a four-year institution,” said Wood, who also serves as president of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges.

“Our goal is that students will not know whether they’re taking a class at Sierra College or Sac State because we have an integrated, seamless experience for them.”

One of the University’s first buildings on the new campus will be the Placer County Forensic Sciences Laboratory, where students will be able to take classes as well as participate in paid internships.

The goal is to complete the building, which will hold classroom and administrative space for the University, by 2028. Funding for the facility will mainly come from Placer County, said Watson.

“It would be so great to be in a classroom and say, ‘Let’s walk across the hall to the lab where real work is happening in real time,’ ” Watson said. “To me, as an educator, having a living lab for experiential learning and internships is the type of partnership that is my dream pedagogy.”

“If we do this right, we can create pathways from community college to doctoral degrees with paid academic internships along the way, all at the Placer Center. That is truly an equity game changer.” -- Vajra Watson, senior associate vice president for Placer Center

The University would also like the lab to include a forensic genetic genealogy component to help identify missing Native Americans.

“Sac State is being attentive in terms of CalNAGPRA and strengthening our relationships with the tribal nations,” Watson said. “Missing Native women, men and children is a national crisis.

“We can pivot to using a forensics lab for all those traditional ways, but also with a more justice-oriented, equity lens to serve a disenfranchised community in a way that is really tied to the core ethics of who we are as a University.”

Academic concentrations for Placer Center’s first phase will include:

• Interdisciplinary Forensic Science
• Environmental Health, Sustainability & Circular Economics
• Public Health, Public Safety & Gerontology
• Urban Planning, Hospitality & Community Development
• Ethnic Studies, Educational Equity & Global Education

Other potential community partners include the Western Placer Waste Management Authority (WPWMA) which operates a materials recovery facility and landfill close to the Placer Center site. The WPWMA already collaborates with the Carlsen Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Sac State for the Circular Economy Innovation Competition.

“The WPWMA is No. 1 for sustainability in California, and No. 6 in the nation when it comes to advanced recycling,” Watson said. “If we can get students thinking about how we can do this even better, then Sac State gets to be part of a solution to the global issue of waste.

“If we’re learning and growing together with industry, then our students are going to get the best of both worlds and solve global problems along the way.”

Update: On Feb, 13, the Placer County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement with the University for the forensics laboratory at the Placer Center.