Vanguard University turns 90

The oldest four-year university in Orange County turns 90 this year.

Vanguard University's buildings dot 40 acres tucked next to Costa Mesa City Hall across from the Orange County Fairgrounds.

But the campus hasn’t always been here. And the college hasn’t always been called Vanguard, either.

Vanguard dean and history professor Mike Wilson says it started as Southern California Bible College in 1920.

"It began as part of the historic Pentecostal movement, which began at Azusa Street in Los Angeles, where there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit at a church," Wilson says. "And many of the participants of that movement immediately went on missions to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. The school was established to give training to those people."

Vanguard University archivist Pam Crenshaw says the campus grew from there.

"It evolved from Bible schools and training missions to thinking, 'OK, we need to add onto that.' So education was added on. And then as education was added on, we added a business program. And as the business program, then psychology. And so," Crenshaw says, "you know, all of those things have made us what we are today."

But Crenshaw says the campus didn’t head straight from the city of Los Angeles to Orange County. It made a temporary home for a few years in Pasadena, until the end of World War II.

"We were looking for property in Pasadena. We had outgrown the property," Crenshaw says. "They were looking all over L.A. And somebody had mentioned that the Santa Ana Air Base was being decommissioned and they thought there was a possibility that we could have property. And we were able to move to the campus in 1950. It was garbanzo bean fields at that time."

That was back when Orange County was filled with fields like that. Costa Mesa wasn’t even a city yet.

The move made Vanguard the first four-year university in Orange County, beating Chapman University in Orange by four years.

About 2,000 students now attend Vanguard. University president Carol Taylor says as the economy has struggled, so has Vanguard, like a lot of other education institutions.

"And we took a number of measures, as many schools have. You know, we did some restructuring. We appealed to those in particular who support students," Taylor says. "Like many schools, we’ve had students whose families have had a difficult time financially. We’re blessed to have a number of private individuals and foundations and groups that provide scholarships for our students."

Taylor says that makes the $26,000 yearly tuition price tag a little more doable.

And she points out that as state universities and colleges raise their fees and limit enrollment, it makes private schools like Vanguard more attractive.

"We’ve had students transfer in because they were waitlisted on every course at the community college where they had enrolled. It’s very difficult for students to get through some of the public institutions in four years," Taylor says. "By the time you calculate out the cost of spending five, six years at a public institution and you look at the lost opportunity for income and delaying your time either to go to graduate school or join the workforce, the cost really balances out and we begin to look quite affordable."

Team that with Vanguard’s emphasis on students doing public service in the surrounding community and you have what Vanguard President Carol Taylor calls a “gem in Orange County.” And it’s one Taylor hopes will stick around for another 90 years.