Lorraine and Loretta Kratz-Certified Negoitation Expert,

A San Marcos philosophy professor and several supporters are hoping to open a non-denominational liberal arts college in the upscale San Elijo Hills community in fall 2010, in the hopes of filling a void in San Diego County. If San Elijo College succeeds, it will join a growing list of facilities that have helped turn San Marcos into a major education center.

San Elijo College founder Tim Mosteller said last week that the campus will be a classical liberal arts institution modeled after so-called "great books" schools in other parts of the country.

Examples include Gutenberg College in Eugene, Ore.; St. John's College in Indianapolis, Ind., and Santa Fe, N.M.; and New St. Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho.

"In North County, especially, there aren't any really traditional sort of liberal arts colleges,"

The school cannot start the multiyear process of seeking accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges until after it has opened.However, the college has registered with the state as a nonprofit corporation and recently received its nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service. Student are presently being recruited.

"We need at least 12 students, with a maximum of 35," he said, referring to the fall 2010 session. "We hope to end up with about 150 total (in five or six years)."

No textbooks

A San Elijo Hills resident, the 39-year-old Mosteller has bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in philosophy.

He is a full-time faculty member at California Baptist University, a private Christian university in Riverside, and teaches part-time at Cal State San Marcos and the Vista extension campus for Biola University, a private Christian university in La Mirada.

Mosteller said he selected San Elijo Hills as a home for the college because he and his family live in and love the 3,400-home community, and because the college can be incorporated nicely into the area.

The college's six-member Board of Trustees has talked with the owners of the San Elijo Hills town center and a local church about leasing administrative office and classroom space in those buildings, he said.

San Elijo College's catalog states that students will spend four years pursuing a rigorous, liberal arts course of study centered around the great works of Western civilization.

The planned curriculum includes English grammar, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, geometry, astronomy and music. Students also will be required to study Latin and Spanish.

Rather than textbooks, Mosteller said, students will read books and other materials written by people commonly recognized as Western civilization's "great thinkers." Examples include Shakespeare, Aristotle, Plato, Chaucer, Dante, Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov.

"For instance, biology ---- they would read the original experiments and the original books by the great biologists like Darwin," Mosteller said. "And instead of taking a class in, say, American History, students would go back and read the original writings of the people who were writing at the time of the American Revolution."

Life lessons

City officials began touting San Marcos as an "education hub" after CSUSM opened in 1989. The university joined Palomar Community College, which founded its Mission Road campus in 1946.

High Tech High School, the University of Phoenix, Coleman University, the University of St. Augustine and the North County Regional Education Center now call San Marcos home, as well.

Mosteller said he met with the founders of private liberal arts colleges across the country before developing a business plan for San Elijo College.

"Between all of them, I was able to get a clear path in my mind about how to go about starting a school," he said.

The Nicene Creed ---- a basic statement of beliefs used by many Christian denominations ---- is prominently displayed on San Elijo College's Web site.

Mosteller said the board incorporated the creed to give the college a philosophical breadth without tying it to a particular church.

Christian scriptures, well-known theologians' works and other religions' texts will be on students' reading lists, he said, but students will not be required to adhere to a particular religion or belief system.

San Elijo College's tuition will be $8,000 a year. Mosteller said graduates will leave with bachelor's degrees in liberal arts and the ability to apply critical thinking skills to all aspects of their lives.

Rescue plans are underway by Rep. Barney Frank. On Monday he said that he is pushing a proposal to use some of the interest the government collects from the financial industry bailout to give loans to unemployed homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages.

The lack of aid to jobless homeowners has been identified as a big weakness in the Obama administration's plan to tackle the mortgage crisis. A report by a congressional oversight panel said last month that the $50 billion program "was not designed to address foreclosures caused by unemployment," which are now the main cause of default.

These are people who are very responsible, very thoughtful. They got a home, it's above water, they've got equity, but they're unemployed, and you can't afford mortgage payments on unemployment," said Frank, D-Mass.

Frank said the program would be funded using interest banks pay on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

This program was actually developed by Congress in the 1970s but never funded. The proposal is now part of legislation introduced in September, called the Main Street TARP bill.

It would provide $2 billion in TARP money for low-interest loans to homeowners who have lost their jobs but who have good prospects for being able to resume mortgage payments in the future. The emergency loans would be provided for up to 12 months with the possibility of extending them for another year.

On Capitol Hill, many lawmakers have complained about the slow pace of loan modifications. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said in an interview last week that his staff has been considering ways to make mortgage companies do more loan modifications.

Its not H1N1 or the Swine Flu ---- what is it ---"Sonic Drive In Fever" has hit the City of Vista, California. Cars are circling and circling around the corner location on Main Street in Vista, Ca., orange cones are up and employees of Sonic are out directing traffic.

Who would have thought that this novelty restaurant would be such a hit. Many customers wait an hour and half or more to get a chance to order from the call box and have their food delivered by a waiter or waitress on roller skates.

Sonic is running a special and it is::Two hamburgers, Tater tots and drinks for $7.99 plus taxes. Not a bad price --- which breaks down to about $4.00 a person. Hard to believe for this price you get to dine at one of the most popular restaurants in Vista, and get entertained.

Vista, California is now on the map for those that want to experience a hot dining event. .

NAR has released a survey showing what kind of information most consumers want when visiting a real estate Website.

When participants were asked what info they considered critical 85.7 percent said that they wanted the ability to search for homes: 42.9 percent said they wanted school information: 57.1 percent said local crime rates and 28.6 percent said tax rates.

Also, this survey showed that most consumers were unfamiliar with the term "dual agency" and "facilitator". Apparently 50% of the respondents had no idea that there were different kinds of brokerage relationships.

Efficiency. Buyers come prepared to buy. "Lookers" are eliminated because most often bidders are required to pre-qualify with a bank prior to the auction. There is a sense of immediacy at auction. Sellers get maximum exposure for their properties. The auction marketing strategy differs from conventional advertising. It is more concentrated over a shorter time and therefore more intense and visible. High carrying costs are avoided. Through auction, the seller is in control and knows that if the reserve is set correctly, his/her property will sell on a certain day at a certain time and close usually within 30 days of the auction. By selling quickly, the seller is able to avoid high carrying costs such as mortgage, insurance, real estate taxes, security and maintenance and is also able to benefit from the use of the money to reinvest in other real estate or investment opportunities elsewhere.