Fee Increase Urged to Pay for Campus Activity Site

There’s an improbable plot unfolding at Oxnard College: students pitching a plan to raise tuition.

The money would help pay for a multimillion-dollar activity center to replace a cramped trailer planted alongside a remote field behind the bookstore.

Among other things, student government leaders want more office space, a computer room, a bigger bookstore and access to the Internet.

And they’re willing to pay an extra $1 per unit to make it happen.

“Right now, we’re in a trailer in the outback,” said Mary Anne Rooney, president of the Associated Student Governing Senate. “It’s a temporary trailer that was supposed to be gone a long time ago.”

Armed with a resolution unanimously adopted by the student senate earlier this month, Rooney made the pitch to trustees of the Ventura County Community College District last week.

Now the student government is conducting a survey through the Campus Observer, the college newspaper. Rooney hopes to put a formal measure before student voters in a special election next spring.

“Oxnard College has some money,” she said. “We just need to tap into it.”

State law allows community college trustees to impose a special $1 per-unit fee--up to $10 per student--for the sole purpose of raising money for such a center.

But even if 67% of the students agree to pay another dollar per unit, it would take years to raise enough money to design, build and equip a new facility. The typical student takes about 10 units a semester.

“The students aren’t going to be able to pay for it all,” Rooney said. “We’re going to need some outside funding and support.”

Student leaders envision a sprawling, multilevel building with conference rooms, an expanded bookstore, lounge area, copying center, lecture hall and more.

“There are more than a dozen clubs on campus, and this [trailer] is the only room they have access to,” said Jeannie Garcia, a sociology major who serves as Rooney’s vice president. “If there’s money for everything else, there should be money for a new student center.”

But the price tag--conservatively estimated at $4 million--may steamroll the center before blueprints can ever be drawn.

College district officials say while the proposal seems worthwhile, money for new projects is very tight.

“Student centers are a tremendous addition to any campus,” said Pete E. Tafoya, president of the board of trustees. “But we’re having a difficult time even getting academic buildings built.”

Fatima Hermasillo, an 18-year-old freshman taking English and computer classes, said she would be willing to pay the extra fee.

“For $1 a unit, it’s a good deal,” she said. “I could learn a lot of things there.”

Nursing student Ricardo Tejada agreed. “Some of this stuff looks pretty good, as opposed to what we have now,” he said, looking over a flier announcing the proposal.

Tafoya said he is not surprised that students have embraced the concept, but said the 21-year-old college may need other projects built first.

“We do have to look at the priorities,” he said. “And a new student center would have to be looked at in addition to all of the other buildings we need on campus.”

Community college officials in Sacramento also are skeptical.

Walt Reno, a facilities planner for the community college system, said his office is looking at a $2-billion backlog of capital projects at campuses across the state.

“New construction is based on statewide priorities for funding, which are published by the Board of Governors,” said Reno, adding that health-and-safety and instructional projects are the top priorities.

“A student center proposal is a B-3, and we’re not presently funding those,” he said. “That’s the bottom line.”

Also, Reno said, state taxpayers already have spent millions of dollars improving Oxnard College in recent years.

A letters and science building--on which California taxpayers are paying $6.7 million to plan, build and equip--is under construction. A child care and development center costing $1.1 million recently opened.

And the 2-year-old gymnasium and physical education center cost $7.4 million.

“The fact that the locals are going to the effort is good,” Reno said. “But we at the state level can only satisfy about 15% or 20% of the need. They need to look at local bonds or other revenue-generating mechanisms.”

Judith Valles, the interim Oxnard College president, said she is confident the center will eventually get financed and constructed.

“It has been done before,” she said. “It takes many years, but it has to start someplace. The fact that student leadership is looking beyond their tenure tells me that they are really looking to the future.”

Meantime, Valles said, student leaders are learning valuable lessons outside Oxnard College classrooms.

“There is learning that’s taking place here,” she said. “The students are learning about requests for proposals, they’re learning about construction costs, they’re learning about architecture.

“Even if that building never gets built, and I think it will, they learn about the political process,” Valles said.

Based on the current enrollment of 6,132 students, the proposed fee increase would raise about $60,000 a year toward the center--a fraction of the millions that would be needed.

Those who use the existing student center the most, however, remain undaunted.

“Once we get the vote, I’m not going to worry about it,” said Merri Ann Harbert, the student activities specialist who occupies a tiny corner office inside the trailer.

“The money’s going to collect.”