Delay Feared in Building of a Mission College Home

Trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District, reeling from state Department of Finance notification that district enrollment projections do not justify another campus in the district, conceded Tuesday that it may take longer than expected to build quarters for Mission College.

Since it was founded in 1975, Mission College has held classes in storefronts, on high school campuses and in hospital auditoriums.

“I’m not looking for Mission College to be built tomorrow, five years from now or 10 years from now,” Monroe Richman, president of the Los Angeles Community College Board, said. “But I do believe it should be included in the construction cycle of the state’s financing plans.”

‘Rapid Growth’ Cited

Noting that Mission College was the only school in the district to show an enrollment increase this fall, Richman said: “The Northeast Valley is experiencing rapid growth, and the community wants this school. I think it would be shortsighted on the part of the state if it does not fund construction of a campus.”

The letter from the Finance Department, received in October, also prompted a meeting Tuesday evening at Mission College’s administrative headquarters in San Fernando, where supporters discussed ways of convincing legislators that a campus is needed.

“We have to stop pussy-footing around on this,” said Sam Arellano, a representative of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley. He suggested starting a petition drive and letter-writing campaign in support of the campus.

Officials of the Los Angeles district responded to the state letter with a letter of their own, disputing the state’s enrollment projections. District officials predicted that Mission College’s enrollment, now 3,491, would reach 7,000 during the 1990s.

Agreement Needed

The next step, according to a spokesman for the California Postsecondary Education Commission, the state agency that oversees colleges and universities, is for officials from the Los Angeles district and the state Department of Finance to try to agree on enrollment projections.

“We have not turned Mission College down for any kind of funding,” the spokesman said. “Once we have figures that we can work with, then the staff will be able to take a recommendation to the commission.”

“If the commission staff ultimately decides not to recommend funding for a Mission campus, the board may look at a couple of alternatives,” Norman Schneider, director of communications for the college district, said Tuesday evening. “The board may bypass the staff and go directly to the commission and ask for support. Or it may look for alternative funding sources.”

Although Mission College is important to the trustees, “current fiscal problems are so immediate that they tend to overshadow other problems,” board member Leticia Quezada said.

This summer, the board had to cut $8.2 million from its budget and is now wrestling with decisions on possible program and personnel reductions.

Budget Comes First

“We are very concerned about Mission but we have to tackle this budget before we do anything else,” Quezada said.

Community leaders who gathered in San Fernando Tuesday night agreed that the best way to fight for construction of a campus is through strong community pressure.

Richard Alarcon, a spokesman for the Mexican-American Political Assn., said the college’s supporters should attend a meeting of the California Board of Governors in Sacramento on Dec. 5.