Building VMAIN

Rendering courtesy of Long Beach City College.

Long Beach City College (LBCC) broke ground this week on a $52.1M Math and Technology Center, a Measure E project that is  being referred to as Building V.

The building will house the colleges Mathematics and Culinary Arts departments. It will offer students over 45,000 sq. ft. of teaching space, including 25 classrooms with a production, baking, pastry and multi-use kitchen, as well as two mathematics labs. Additionally, the project’s design has already garnered an Award of Merit by the 2012 Community College Coalition Professional Awards Program.

“The development and construction of Building V is a direct result of the College’s building and modernization program,” said LBBC Superintendent-President Eloy Ortiz Oakley in a press release. “Our continued investment in our infrastructure and student programs, on both campuses, will allow us to meet the demands of our economy and society by bringing students the latest in technology and educational tools to prepare them for success in the market place.”

The building, however, comes at a time when community college administrations across the state are being criticized for their large support of a two-tier fee system, a proposal from the State legislature that would allow colleges to charge non-resident tuition for high demand classes during summer and winter sessions.

“This is a perfect example of the problem with our higher education funding system,” said Miles Nevin, director of the California State Student Association. “The state says, ‘We’re over it, we want to fund prisons instead,’ so cities and counties then look locally for funding. This, in turn, passes things like Measures K, M, and E in Long Beach, which result in funding capital projects like Building V instead of access.”

From this perspective, the reversion from state funding to local funding and its intimate ties to capital projects exacerbate the enrollment problem—LBCC currently has over 15,000 students awaiting admission—while causing further financial detriment to less affluent students—LBCC houses one of the largest populations of poor students in the state according to Student Trustee Andrea Donado.

The legislation to create a two-tier system currently sits on the desk of Governor Brown, who has not provided comment on the issue.

Building V is expected to take 18 months to complete, eventually opening in 2015.

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