Modesto Junior College has been serving the region’s students for more than 100 years and, frankly, many of the campus’ buildings are starting to look their age.
Actually, they’ve been showing their age for some time.
That’s why the Yosemite Community College District, which includes both MJC campus sites and Columbia College in Sonora, will take up the matter of placing a $735 million bond on the ballot this November with the aim of replacing aging infrastructure, improving instructional spaces, and removing hazardous materials.
The YCCD Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the YCCD board room, 2201 Blue Gum Ave., Modesto, to discuss the issue.
The district campuses last received a major facelift in 2004, when voters approved Measure E, a $326 million bond (the equivalent to about $600 million in today’s dollars) to address a bevy of improvement projects. But, as current MJC President Brian Sanders pointed out, the district simply didn’t look far enough into the future at that time – and many of the buildings not touched by Measure E money have fallen further into disrepair.
“Every dollar that was spent served a great purpose,” said Sanders. “All the Measure E projects were very important, very much needed, and have been used to serve our community extensively.
“When you look at our science building, or Glacier Hall for nursing, the ag pavilion, the theater – thousands and thousands of people have benefited from their use.”
Modesto Junior College has one of the top agriculture programs in the state – no surprise given that it sits in the heart of the Central Valley – and a widely acclaimed nursing program. Likewise, the fire management program at Columbia is highly regarded.
“The nursing program is full and there’s amazing demand to get in,” said Sanders. “Our nursing students get hands-on training from our great group of professors; and they get real-life experiences in our human simulation lab.
“And at Columbia there are 280 acres of forest chapparal – a dense shrub-based ecosystem – that serves as a transition zone between the foothills and the upper Sierra Nevada. They pride themselves on having wildland fire training built into their academy.”
Measure E funds were used at MJC to modernize Founders Hall, the Library and Learning Resources Center, the Performing Arts and Media Center, the Center for Advanced Technologies, the Student Services Building, and creating a parking lot with 455 spaces on the old East Campus. Across town at the West Campus, funds went toward the Agriculture Center for Education, ag dorms, a softball complex, the Great Valley Museum Education Demonstration Center, and Glacier Hall.
Improvement projects at Columbia included the Child Development Center, Public Safety Center, Sugar Pin Science and Natural Resources Building, Madrone Building and Sequoia Building modernization, Manzanita Building, Pinyon Building and Juniper Building upgrades, and upgrades to existing roads.
Funds were also used to purchase land in Turlock and Patterson for educational outreach sites.
According to the YCCD website, some of the campuses’ classroom, training facilities, and service buildings were constructed before 1965 and have never been updated.
Each year, roughly 40 percent of high school graduates in the district went on to enroll at a YCCD campus, where tuition is about one-sixth the cost of CSU and UC schools. However, since Measure E construction was completed in 2018, the total number of students served per year by YCCD has ballooned from about 22,000 to 31,000, further straining its aging infrastructure.
