Earthquake: The Road To Recovery : CSUN Coping With Its Losses

The Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake destroyed or damaged dozens of key buildings at the sprawling Cal State Northridge campus, forcing students to attend classes in temporary bungalows.

The 353-acre campus, which reopened on Feb. 14, sustained an estimated $350 million in damage in the 6.8-magnitude temblor, believed to be the worst natural disaster ever to befall a U. S. college campus.

Students are unable to use the heavily damaged Oviatt Library and are shuttled to the UCLA library, an hour’s ride away. The 220,000-square-foot structure dropped most of its 600,000 volumes from the shelves and suffered damage to about 15 boxes of rare books in last week’s rains. University officials hope to reopen the library by mid-March.

The loss of the 2,500-space parking structure has caused students to fight for parking in neighborhoods adjacent to the university. Waits for parking spots sometimes approach 30 minutes.

About 24,500 students have registered for the spring semester, which will not offer a spring break and will be extended a week to make up for the delay in opening caused by the quake.