Older Community College Campuses Need Some TLC

In 1937, the year that former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley graduated from John H. Francis Polytechnic High School, a state-of-the-art classroom building was constructed on that campus. Today, that same building is used for electronics classes on what is now the Los Angeles Trade-Tech Community College campus. Needless to say, the building is no longer state-of-the-art.

To install up-to-date technology in many classrooms at Trade-Tech, you would have to excavate your way through two-foot thick concrete blocks and around electrical wires that haven’t seen the light of day since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s third term as president.

The situation at Trade-Tech is not unique. More than 75% of the buildings in the nine-campus Los Angeles Community College District, a workhorse of higher education in our community with over 100,000 students, are more than 25 years old. At Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley, faculty still push computers and media equipment between classes on carts. At Los Angeles City College, the state champion basketball team plays in the oldest community college gymnasium in the state, where ceiling tiles have fallen to the court during games. At Harbor College in the South Bay, the planetarium, built during the Sputnik era, has seats so uncomfortable that many students prefer to stand during lectures.

We have a “New Deal” college infrastructure surrounded by a new technology economy.

There is a legislative bill that is now before Gov. Gray Davis that could help change this situation and bring increased opportunities for learning to the community college population in Los Angeles.

Senate Bill 1283, authored by Sen. Richard Polanco and Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, both Los Angeles Democrats, would alter the way that money for community college facilities is spent in California.

Historically, California has directed facilities money toward constructing new campus facilities. The idea was that money should go toward new buildings in college districts that were growing. In the 1960s, this logic was sound, and money was distributed throughout the state.

But today, the same funding structure disproportionately benefits the more suburban and affluent communities by focusing almost exclusively on new buildings. Meanwhile, the facilities on our older campuses continue to deteriorate.

The proposed bill, modeled after similar legislation that provided funds for modernizing K-12 facilities, would make the Los Angeles Community College District eligible for funds to refurbish any permanent building that is more than 25 years old, as long as the classrooms had not been previously modernized with state funding. The new rules would apply to any general obligation bond proceeds approved by voters after Jan. 1, 2000.

The bill would help balance what has become an unfair system of financial allocation. Despite enrollment of almost 9% of the full-time students in the California community college system, the Los Angeles district has received only 3.6% of capital outlay dollars over the past five years. Los Angeles County provides the bulk of the votes to pass educational bond projects but receives little of the money.

Three-quarters of the students of the Los Angeles Community College District are from minority backgrounds, and more than 40% come from families with incomes near or below the poverty line. They should have the same access to modern facilities that help train students for the high-skilled jobs of the future as students from more affluent suburban households. As Polanco testified when he introduced his bill in Sacramento, “We should not deny funds for students who happen to study at older campuses.”

Imagine a bio-tech center where students would experience a learning environment that seamlessly integrates traditional classroom lectures with computer-projected video clips, animation graphics and online research materials. Visualize a new media center where students have access to a first-class sound studio and film design labs that prepare them to move into the lucrative movie industry. Consider the advantages of a modern automobile technology building where students can learn to repair advanced clean-fuel vehicles.

With political will and economic support, we can make these visions real for tens of thousands of urban community college students who need only an opportunity to help themselves.

When he was campaigning, Gov. Davis stated that “there is no more important system of higher education than our community colleges” and that “repairing and replacing crumbling and aging facilities” would be a top priority of his administration. SB 1283 has received bipartisan support in the state Legislature. Davis can remain true to his word with a stroke of his pen.