The new University of California Sacramento Center will notaffect Sacramento State programs, said UC officials.

Sac State has long been the main player of internship and theCapital Fellows Programs in Sacramento. Some of that will changethis winter when the new UC Sacramento Center opens its doors.

“The students and the state will benefit from thisprogram,” said Ed Costantini, professor of Californiapolitics at UC Davis. “We’ve never had any intention oftaking anything away from CSUS.”

The UC system spent $18 million to buy a 112,000 square footoffice building at 11th and K streets and will utilize some of thespace for classrooms and conferences to start a three-year pilotinternship program for political science students from all of itscampuses.

“If things in Sacramento go well at the end of thethree-year pilot program then Washington is something we’dlike to aspire to here,” said Costantini.

The UC Washington Center is a multi-million dollar facilitywhere students live in in-house dormitories and attend classes.

It also provides lectures and forums of educators, policy makersand the nation’s leaders.

No such facility exists for the CSU. The CSU does have the SacSemester, an undergraduate internship program that Sac State hasarranged every spring since 1976 for all 23 campuses.

“It would be great to have a nice big building downtown,but with the budget the way it is it’s just going to have tobe something we fantasize about,” said Tim Hodson, directorof the Center for California Studies at Sac State.

The purchase of the UC Sacramento Center purchase was mostlykept under wraps. Its details were discussed in a November 2001closed-door meeting and the documents regarding the meeting wereonly available to members of the public if they requested it.

When the UC Center opens, it will only consist of handful ofundergraduate students who will attend for no less than a quarterto take elective courses, do research projects and participate inan internship.

“I regard the UC activities as beneficial…tocreating a vibrant public policy and political learning climate inCalifornia’s capital,” Hodson said. “But I willbe very watchful that they don’t duplicate our programs thatwe have worked very hard for.”

One such program is the Capital Fellows Program where graduatestudents are placed in paid staff positions in all three branchesof government, while receiving units and following an academiccurriculum.

Sac State has run the program since 1984, when California votersvoted for a budget reduction measure that eliminated overhead fromthe legislature’s funds. One of the programs cut was theSenate and Assembly Fellows Programs.

Former President Donald Gerth arranged with the legislatureduring the same summer to have the Fellows Program run andorganized by Sac State.

The deal entailed that Sac State would pay the fellows’stipends for the 1984-85 school year and after that the legislaturewould give the money to the university.

“To this day I don’t know where Gerth got the moneyto do that,” said government professor John Syer regardingthe first year’s stipends.

Sac State has received high marks and praise for its handling ofthe Fellows Program.

“The Senate budget committee was not favorable to have theUC take over the Fellows Programs. They have always been pleasedwith our work,” Hodson said.

Syer said that despite the Senate’s compliments, there isno guarantee in either branch of government’s budget that SacState has to organize and lead this project.

“We’re in crunch time if the incoming governor sendsfor some expert from Florida and she says that this thing is fluffthen we’re both in trouble,” Syer said.