Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Classes Move Outdoors at College of the Canyons : Education: Students take courses in 21 tents erected after the Jan. 17 earthquake damaged campus buildings.

College of the Canyons students who wished that they could be outside rather than in a stuffy classroom may be having second thoughts.

The Jan. 17 earthquake caused $3.2 million in damage to the campus and delayed the start of the spring semester by a week. Many of the college’s 6,500 students are taking courses out of 21 large tents erected on the campus’s upper practice field.

“Most students are affected. There are very few who aren’t,” said Sue Bozman, spokeswoman for the Valencia campus. “If they are going full time, with four or five classes, they’re taking at least one class in a tent.”

A few science building classrooms were approved for occupancy Wednesday, and the campus library is slated to reopen next week. The L building that houses science labs was not damaged, but has been closed while workers remove spilled chemicals.

White with primary-color stripes, the tents give the field the look of a circus grounds. Bozman said officials hope to get out of the makeshift classrooms before rain comes, but courses will continue even in wet weather.

“The tents are kind of festive and it’s nice on a warm day, but yesterday it was cold and it was tough to get comfortable,” Bozman said. “We’re operating and that’s great, but it’s not the best way to operate.”

Ongoing renovation projects at the college have made recovery from the 6.6-magnitude earthquake smoother. Administration and counseling offices on the first floor and computer labs on the second floor of the damaged C building were already slated to move to other parts of the campus by the end of the semester. Students are still displaced from classrooms on the third floor of that building.