Mission College Breaks Ground for Permanent Home

In a frequently emotional ceremony, ground was broken Friday for a permanent home for Mission College, ending a 13 1/2-year struggle to build a campus for the two-year institution that is part of the Los Angeles Community College District.

Since it was established in 1975, Mission classes have been held in storefronts, high school classrooms and hospital auditoriums throughout the San Fernando Valley. Most of its temporary classrooms and administrative buildings are in the city of San Fernando.

Construction on the 22-acre Sylmar campus, near El Cariso Regional Park, should begin this summer. The campus is scheduled to open in September, 1989.

3 Buildings

Three structures are initially planned for the campus: an instructional-administration building, a student center with a library and assembly hall and a student union that includes a weight room and offices for the student government, and the college fiscal and business departments.

Friday’s ceremony was a relaxed event. Most of the 300 people gathered on the hot, dusty field knew each other and had taken part in the fight to build the campus.

The ground-breaking ritual was highlighted by the appearance of nearly 30 kindergartners from Morningside Elementary School in San Fernando wearing shirts that said “Class of 2000.” The children, who each had a plastic shovel, were so enthusiastic that their shoveling created a small dust cloud.

As he opened the ceremony, Mission President Lowell Erickson said it was difficult to say, “Welcome to the ground-breaking for Mission College.”

“We’ve been working for so long that I practically can’t believe it when I say it,” he said.

Instrumental Speakers

Some of the people who were instrumental in getting money to build the college took turns addressing the audience.

Guadalupe Ramirez, affectionately known as “the mother of Mission College” because of her tireless efforts on behalf of the school, almost cried during her presentation. Herbert Ravetch, founding president of the college, reminisced about the first years of the school.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), who made construction of a Mission campus a legislative priority, said the college was a tribute to community members “who refused to give up.”

Plans for a Mission campus have been on the drawing board for more than a decade, but a series of setbacks have delayed construction.

The first barrier was a lengthy dispute over the purchase price of the Sylmar site. When the college district finally acquired the land, drastic cuts in state funding for all community colleges prevented further development.

Twice Budgeted

Twice, in 1985 and in 1986, money that the state Legislature budgeted for construction of Mission was eliminated by Gov. George Deukmejian. Both times he said that district enrollment projections did not justify an additional campus in the 10-college system.

In 1987, Deukmejian surprised college officials by proposing that $8.5 million for a Mission building be included in the state budget. He said he changed his position after being convinced of the growing demand for a northeast Valley community college. In addition to the state funds, Mission had $12.5 million for campus development. That money came from the 1984 sale of 80 acres of undeveloped Northridge land.

The Northridge property was the original site for Mission College, which moved to Sylmar after a study showed more need for a two-year college in the northeast Valley.