The modernization of the Student Services building will be put on hold for at least one year.
Low enrollment was the reason cited by BC President William Andrews for the delay.
“The plan for Student Services would have been as soon as commencement ended in May for us to relocate everything in Student Services to other places on campus,” said Andrews.
“Then a contractor would come in and do asbestos abatement which would take three to six months. Then the construction and remodeling contractors could come in to start working on it after that.”
He said that could take up to three years. “The reason I put it on hold for a year is our enrollments are soft,” he said.
Student Services operations would have had to be distributed to all areas of campus, “which would automatically make it more difficult for students.”
Andrews said the college needs to continue what it is doing and do it better “to encourage enrollment rather than make it more difficult.”
Departments currently housed in Student Services such as counseling and financial aid, would have to be relocated to other areas across the campus.
“I don’t want to spend Measure G dollars to create an easily relocated village that would serve as swing space because that could cost as much as $2 to $3 million to create that kind of space,” said Andrews.
Andrews wants to limit confusion for students. “It’s impossible not to create some level of confusion no matter how carefully we plan this out. It will still be a challenge as we redistribute everything in that building.”
“In the short term this is our best solution right now.”
The Student Services building is 70,000 square feet and houses everything from counseling to financial aid.
Measure G projects that are nearing completion are the modernization of the Applied Science & Technology Building, the planetarium modernization, and the downtown Weill Center modernization.
The Delano campus is roughly 70 percent completed.
Other Measure G projects include the modernization of the Speech, Arts and Music building and the autotech modernization, both of which are in the beginning stages.
The college also purchased 225 acres of land for a future extension campus of BC in west Bakersfield at the cost of $12,000,000.
“The goal there is to plan for a new campus that would begin construction in probably eight to 10 years,” said Andrews.
He said if the college waited longer to purchase land, the land, if it existed would cost more.
“The build-out projections that I’ve seen show the city expanding all the way to I-5 to the west; to the south, at least down to Bear Mountain (Blvd.) or beyond.”
He said the college needs to grow to accommodate city growth.
Measure G is a $180,000,000 bond measure passed three years ago that provides for construction in the Kern Community College district, which includes, Cerro Coso and Porterville Colleges.