Emerson College to expand its Hollywood link

Emerson College, drawing on its growing roster of A-list alumni and seeking to cement its reputation as a Hollywood training ground, has quietly launched plans to establish a permanent campus in Los Angeles.

The plans call for the college to build or buy buildings for classrooms, a dormitory, a cafeteria, and a lounge. While the college has run a small program in Burbank for 17 years, the se plans represent its most serious effort yet to tap into the "Emerson mafia" -- a network of 2,000 Los Angeles-area alumni who include comedians Jay Leno and Denis Leary ; Max Mutchnick , co-creator of "Will & Grace;" and Kevin Bright , co-creator of "Friends."

"There's a sense that Emerson belongs in Los Angeles and should have some sort of permanent operation," college spokesman David Rosen said yesterday. "We don't currently have that, even though we've been out there since 1990."

The plans, which would increase the number of Emerson students studying in Los Angeles from 90 to 125, are stirring excitement and trepidation.

Some students worry that Emerson, which was founded in Boston in 1880, could lose some of the local character that makes it distinct from competitors in show-business meccas, such as the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, near Broadway.

Others say expansion into Los Angeles represents a bold plan to make Emerson a premier launching pad for actors, writers, producers, and others in the entertainment business. Some students cheered the plans, saying a permanent campus would it make it easier for Los Angeles-based students to move directly from the cloistered world of college into the competitive, you-are-who-you-know world of Hollywood.

"I think it's a great idea," said Gabriel Freedman , 21, an aspiring film editor who attends Emerson and is in Los Angeles this summer, taking a course on film and television and working at Swift River Productions, a studio founded by a 1995 Emerson graduate, Paul Morra . "Being out here would get you into the business and give you a good feel of what people you will be working with."

Morra echoed the enthusiasm, saying it makes sense to allow students and alumni to mingle more closely in Los Angeles. He said in a telephone interview that he has accepted 40 interns from Emerson since founding Swift River nine years ago, and has hired about half of them after graduation.

Yesterday, his two interns, Freedman and Benjamin Phillippo , 21, a film major from Carlisle, were on set with Arianna Huffington, filming her for an episode of "The Henry Rollins Show."

"This is the epicenter of entertainment, and I can't think of a better place to have a secondary campus," Morra said. "There are a lot of us who work out here, and there is this Emerson mafia, it's true. . . . We just kind of look out for each other."

Other alumni, however, said they worry about the college shifting its focus too far from Boston.

"I would hate to see everything move out here because one of the best things about having Emerson in Boston is it gives film and TV kids a chance to work outside LA," said David Sous , 22, an Emerson graduate who lives in Los Angeles. "And for a lot of us, we're going to be spending the rest of our lives in LA and New York."

Rosen cautioned that the plans are still in the early stages; there are no cost estimates or firm timetables. Officials are looking for potential locations and will seek donors later to fund at least part of the satellite campus.

He said college officials think the Los Angeles Center in Burbank, which Emerson started in 1990, has become too small for its mission to train arts students. The center sponsors classes, a film festival, and internships for 90 juniors and seniors every semester.

But the center has no permanent home. Students live in a leased apartment complex and study in leased classrooms. And the program is oversubscribed. After the expansion, students would live and study on a traditional, close-knit campus for the semester, Rosen said.

"It's really a very, very popular and successful program," Rosen said. "And you know it's successful because most of them never come back [to Boston]. Most of them end up with an entry-level job or internship from networking and connections."

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com