As the efforts to build a student services building for the Cal State San Bernardino Palm Desert campus pick up steam, we thought it imperative to reinforce the need for a permanent 4-year university in the Coachella Valley. While the common perception is that our valley comprises mostly seniors and retirees, there is a large population of potential college students right here in the Coachella Valley.
At first glance, the Coachella Valley appears to have a smaller concentration of college students than the US as a whole, California, or Riverside. But on closer inspection, if you look at the 4 valley cities with the largest concentrations of this age group (18 years old and less), they have a significantly higher concentration of eventual college students than all the other comparative geographies. An estimated 56,364 residents are in this age group in just these four cities. The Coachella Valley needs to advocate for this underserved population.
