EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : Hundreds Labor to Reopen College

Struggling with what Cal State Northridge officials say has become the worst disaster ever to strike a major U.S. university, hundreds of workers labored around the clock in the rain Monday to ready the campus for its scheduled reopening next week.

From a rented recreational vehicle that has been her office since the Jan. 17 quake damaged virtually every building on the 353-acre campus, Cal State Northridge President Blenda Wilson predicted that the university will meet its Feb. 14 reopening deadline, but only by using a patchwork of about 250 modular classrooms and holding many classes at off-campus sites.

“No university in the United States has ever suffered the degree of disaster we have experienced,” Wilson said Monday.

Wilson said the damage will run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, far exceeding the next highest sum she knows of, the estimated $11 million in damage at the University of Miami in Florida from Hurricane Andrew.

She urged students and faculty members to be patient with what will be a difficult recovery.

Throughout the week, a contractor work force of about 300 will be rushing to set up the modular classrooms. Progress was slowed by Monday’s storm, and only about 70 of the 250 units have been erected.

There is no official estimate of the damage yet, but calculations by campus administrators have ranged as high as $350 million. Bill Chatham, associate vice president for facilities, said engineers believe all of the campus’s damaged structures--even parts of its collapsed 2,500-space parking structure--can be repaired. But the work could take years, he said.

University officials said 250 modular classrooms and about 30 other portable buildings are being towed in from throughout California under the direction of J.A. Jones Construction of Los Angeles, the main contractor for the project. The month-to-month rentals alone are expected to cost the university about $5.5 million over the next six months.

The university’s most prominent building, the Oviatt Library, is not expected to reopen until mid-March. Starting next week, the university plans to operate shuttles seven days a week between the Northridge campus and libraries at UCLA.

University officials applauded news that preliminary enrollment figures for the spring semester show nearly 23,000 students--only about 2,000 fewer than for a typical spring semester. But students will be able to drop and add classes for another several weeks, and Cal State Northridge officials are not sure how many of those registered actually will wind up attending the university.

Although most of the classes that had been offered before the earthquake still will be available, university Provost Louanne Kennedy said, the extensive damage to buildings has forced a drastic reshuffling of the class schedule. The result is that class times will range from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and some will meet on Saturdays.

*

Almost all lecture classes will be held in modular buildings on campus. But most specialized and laboratory classes will be held elsewhere, including at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks; Mission, Pierce and Valley community colleges in the San Fernando Valley; UCLA; Glendale Community College, and even a Department of Water and Power building in San Fernando.

One of the hardest-hit divisions was the School of Science & Mathematics. Based in a four-building complex, it was not only structurally damaged in the quake but suffered chemical contamination. Dean Donald Bianchi said one of the buildings may be available in several months, but the other three probably will not be used for the entire semester.