College of the Canyons Faculty Association, which is part of the California Teachers Association and represents more than 200 full-time faculty members at the college, voted recently to officially endorse Measure E.
On the ballot June 7, Measure E will provide $230 million in funding for new facilities to meet the increasing demand for access to higher education by Santa Clarita Valley students.
“Our members dedicate themselves to providing the best education possible for the college’s students,” said COCFA President Wendy Brill-Wynkoop. “Their success depends on modern facilities, and Measure E will ensure our students have access to the classrooms and labs that will enable them to transfer to a four-year university, or prepare for cutting-edge, next-generation careers.”
COC currently serves about 20,000 students per semester. That number is projected to reach 30,000 — an increase of 50 percent — in little more than a decade. The growing demand is driven by the college’s reputation for academic excellence, as well as its affordability when compared with California’s public four-year university systems.
The college ranks fourth in California, out of 113 colleges, for the rate of class completion by college-prepared students. And COC leads the 21 community colleges in Los Angeles County with the highest student transfer rate to four-year universities.
More families rely on COC to provide a high-quality, yet affordable option, for the first two years of college to avoid amassing student loan debt. Two years at College of the Canyons costs $3,494, compared to $35,364 at a California State University (CSU) campus, $67,200 in the University of California (UC) system.
The potential for savings makes College of the Canyons the college of first choice for local high school students. Three out of four college-going graduates from the William S. Hart Union High School District choose College of the Canyons.
If passed by voters on June 7, Measure E will provide $230 million for College of the Canyons to build new classrooms and labs at the Valencia and Canyon Country campuses that will accommodate the growth in student enrollment.
Measure E will fund four new buildings totaling 172,000 square feet of learning and student service space at the Canyon Country Campus. At Valencia, the bond will build 1,000 new parking spaces and renovate 350,000 square feet of learning space, much of it in classroom and lab buildings that are more than 40 years old.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Tweet This
Facebook
Digg This
Bookmark
Stumble
RSS
REAL NAMES ONLY: All posters must use their real individual or business name. This applies equally to Twitter account holders who use a nickname.
2 Comments
People of SCV, enough is enough! Look at your property tax bill. I’m sure it is like mine, with a laundry list of additional items beyond the property tax -so much so, that the annual bill is twice what it should be. We are already paying for past “voted indebtedness” for the college, and the high schools, and the middle schools, and the grammar schools. These in addition to extra voted taxes for street lights, flood control ditches, and the list goes on! The ONLY way the political leaders are going to be reined end against this never ending tax and spend mentality is to vote “NO” on all new tax related bond programs. Isn’t time that the politicians learned to manage the 100-plus billions of tax dollars we pay annually? No one could run a household the way the politicians run this state. No one! They’d be bankrupt in short order, because the average worker can’t simply create another tax, raise another fee, or pray on the sympathy of their employer the way the politicians play on the sympathy of taxpayers. Every election tax increase is “about the children” or “about the elderly.” Californians keep passing brainlessly passing these self imposed taxes, and nothing get better. Nothing! No on “E.”
As with any bond measure, it’s going to fall short and ALL the taxpayers will be on the hook to fund the remainder. Vote no on E.