The issue of construction will not be separated from the daily routine of students, and it is becoming a nuisance to everyone who inevitably encounters it.
The initial push to replace the water and gas lines on campus that began mid-April 2014 have now impacted the daily routine of scholars so much that it is a detriment to the learning environment.
While one portion or another of the campus has been closed off for much of the semester making it difficult and crowded while walking to classes, the construction is now impeding on the daily lives of students when the hasty manner of construction makes mistakes. It is understandable that the replacing of decades old pipes at Bakersfield College, are foremost agendas to those making the “big” decisions. However, there are some issues that present themselves when examining this push for updated infrastructure.
BC is a very old campus. Since the move from downtown Bakersfield, which completed in 1956, BC has been located on Panorama Dr. and University Way. It was completed with the latest 1950’s technology. And little has changed since then to be quite frank. Asbestos was still being removed from the Humanities building up to two years ago. The refurbishing and abatement projects at BC have been happening for quite some time. Everyone who makes decisions about the campus knows this place is old; the pipes are not a new issue. Or rather, they should not be.
This sudden push to update the campus must be examined from a different standpoint.
The subject of the old pipes was known for sometime and is just know being taken care of because BC apparently has more important things to do.
Negatively impacting the lives of students, who already have so much to overcome, in a hurried effort to get up to code is unacceptable. What makes it more egregious is that those efforts, which should have been foremost, are put on the back burner.
Celebrating 100 years as a community college is a grand affair and infrastructure can wait.
Winning, and ungraciously losing, a state football title is more important than clean, running water.
Red, White, and Wine, the yearly administration mixer, is paramount to heated classes.
Building a brand new multi-million dollar theater is more important than assuring that 60-year-old pipes do not randomly burst while a student is indisposed in the restroom.
The point is that issue should have been taken care of much sooner; arguably the administration would much rather focus their efforts growing BC’s prestige and culture, which is fine if the entire school isn’t being closed down from a broken water main in a rush to keep your government funding intact.
Most of the students on campus love the heritage of their college, and that is a good thing for a school to encourage and facilitate. Yet, in that quest for glory they have lost sight of what creates and fosters all those kudos and smiling student faces.
A functioning, uninterrupted process of learning and academic growth is what is most important to this campus.
It is high time those in administration realized this and put their grandiose aside, and cater to the side of students’ needs first. Without a continued positive student experience, the campus will continue to be broken and no amount of swift construction will be able to rebuild it.