SANTA ANA : College Time Capsule to Be Opened in 2010

Rancho Santiago College has preserved a piece of the present for the district’s future by burying a time capsule that will be reopened in 2010.

During a brief ceremony in front of the Administration Building on Tuesday, district officials buried a footlong gray cylinder filled with items including a schedule of classes, a copy of El Don, the student newspaper, a staff directory, an aerial photograph of the campus and school employee salary schedules.

Brian E. Conley, president of the Board of Trustees, predicted that continued enrollment growth could increase the student body to more than 100,000 by 2010. The college system now has 23,156 students at its campuses in Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Orange.

“Hopefully, the challenges of limited funding will be resolved by that time,” he said.

District officials, including Conley and Trustees Shirley Ralston, Charles W. (Pete) Maddox and Chancellor Vivian Blevins, shoveled earth over the capsule, which was crafted by students from the campus’s machine and welding department and placed with a plaque near the Administration Building entrance.

Conley said later that he hoped that the students, staff and faculty of the future will look back to today and say: “They did an excellent job. They did their homework and knew how to prepare for the 21st Century.”