VOLUME 109 ISSUE 3 ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT PCCCOURIER.COM
February 6,2014
COURIER
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U Building to be demolished
Christopther Martinez/Courier
PCC's Armen Sarafian Hall, also known as the U-Building, has been abandoned since the Summer of 201 1 after the college considered it unsafe In the case of
an earthquake.
Aubrey Quezada
Staff Writer
The college is currently
awaiting approval on funding to
replace the U Building, which
was abandoned after being
deemed structurally unsafe in
2012, officials said.
“[The U Building] was deter¬
mined to be unsafe for students,
faculty and staff after three
separate structural engineering
reports determined the budding
would pancake during a signifi¬
cant earthquake event,” accord¬
ing to Robert Miller, assistant
superintendent and senior vice
president of business and col¬
lege services.
The college plans to demol¬
ish the existing building and
construct a brand new one and
the project is estimated to cost
about $54.5 million.
According to Miller, funding
for the U Building to be de¬
molished and replaced depends
on the governor and legislature
agreeing to place an Educational
Facilities Bond Act measure on
the state ballot.
Once the funding is approved,
the college can begin working
with state architects to design a
new building that is more energy
efficient and seismically safe, but
they may not be able to begin
construction of a new building
for another three or four years.
William Foster, theater arts in¬
structor and member of the Fac¬
ulty Association, said that one of
the reports that was conducted
found the U Building to be as
structurally sound as both the
C Building and the
К
Building,
which are both still being used
to hold classes.
“Unfortunately it’s only going
to become more of a problem as
time goes by,” Foster said. “It’s
full of rodents, it is not getting
custodial care and there’s no
ventilation to clean out the air in
there. It’s just going to sit there
like a white elephant.”
According to Foster, the U
Building is also full of asbes¬
tos, which has to be cleared
out before they can even begin
demolishing the building.
“The general feeling among
BUILDING page 2 j^-
Senate
attempts
president
evaluation
Philip McCormick
Managing Editor
The Academic Senate sent
out a survey to full-time faculty
members on Monday to evaluate
Superintendent Mark Rocha in
an attempt to assess the perfor¬
mance of Rocha after senate
members complained that the
Board of Trustees left them out
of the formal evaluation process.
“Shared governance commit¬
tees have spent numerous hours
on numerous issues collecting
data and coming up with rec¬
ommendations,” senate presi¬
dent Eduardo Cairo said. “The
president opts to go a different
route.”
EVALUATION page 3 ►
New schools structure aims for efficiency
и
THE RESTRUCTURING HAS STARTED
ENGLiSH.LAN6UA6ES.ESL
SOCIAL SCIENCES
HUMANITIES
l SOCIAL
SCIENCES
VISUAL MEDIA.
PERFORMING
ARTS
Illustration by
Antonio Gandara
Twelve divisions
were put into six
schools. The CEC
and the School of
allied health remain
untouched.
PERFORMING COMMUNICATION ARTS
VISUAL ARTS /MEDIA STUDIES
MATH /COMPUTER SCIENCE
NATURAL SCIENCES, KINESIOLOGY
>©
M ENGINEERING /TECHNOLOGY
\ BUSINESS
Christine Michaels
Editor-in-Chief
The administration just put in place a new
structure for the college, combining what
were originally 12 academic divisions with 12
deans into six schools with an undetermined
number of deans.
Many are wondering what the consequenc¬
es of this major reformation will do and has
done to the efficiency of the college as a
whole.
According to Robert Bell, senior vice pres¬
ident of student learning services, the new
structure will provide a stronger voice to
faculty and allow students to get their classes
more efficiendy.
“The goal of reorganization is to establish
a model in which the faculty within each
school assume a lead role in the formation
of decisions that are of direct importance to
faculty,” Bell said before the implementation
of the new structure.
With the new structure, divisions that
were formerly “not in communication” with
one another in terms of scheduling will be
better able to serve students working toward
majors that require two disciplines that work
together, such as math and science, accord¬
ing to Simon Fraser, Associated Students
trustee.
“I think that it makes sense as we start to
schedule classes based on students complet¬
ing degrees or certificates and should reduce
the instances of a student needing classes
that are cross discipline but traditionally
cross scheduled,” Fraser said. “Hopefully it
will allow for more innovative and cross dis¬
cipline curriculum to be developed, but [this]
will require our faculty to be willing
REORGANIZATION page 3 ►
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