Tyler Reese
Staff Writer
Some new light has been shed on the short and long-term plans that Riverside City College has in the works.
“We’re going to build a student services building right in front of Magnolia,” said RCC president, Wolde-Ab Isaac.
The new state of the art Student Services building will mirror the architecture of the Quad, according to Isaac.
This building, which will replace the administration building, will now hold all of the student services such as Financial Aid, the Welcome Center and Health Services. Part of parking lot “A” will have to be dug up to accommodate for the new building. The current Administration building will be bulldozed and new parking will be put in.
With this construction, Administration hopes that the constant navigating new students do to get around the campus in order to register as a full time student can be avoided by the new Student Services building. Administration plans to have the construction completed before 2016 as part of its short-term goals, according to Isaac.
“Long term we plan to have a beautification project for new buildings and facilities,” said Isaac.
Administration has envisioned a time in the future that all of its old buildings can be refurbished such as the Business Education, Ceramic, Art and other older buildings in the campus’ lower lots along Olivewood Avenue.
These buildings were built in the 1940s and have functioned, but are now showing signs of wear and tear. The buildings on the lower lot will be torn down and new ones constructed in their place.
The RCC “river,” flows directly through the lower parking lots and will eventually be turned into a green area, where anyone can relax between classes, eat some grub or hang out.
“When we expand to that level we may need to look at parking because RCC is limited in terms of land,” Isaac said.
Since the college has expanded to every inch of its property we can’t just construct more parking on land we don’t have.
“It might make sense if we have a parking structure,” said Isaac.
“On Market (Street) and University (Avenue) they’re putting up two large buildings: that’s about $80 million,” Isaac said.
These two buildings will house the Henry W. Coil Sr. and Alice Edna Coil School for the Arts plus the Culinary Arts Academy. The Coil School for the Arts will house all of the college’s music programs except for the band. The Culinary Academy will house all of the college’s culinary programs.
The Discipline Administration will move into one floor and the chancellor, Human Resources and everyone else will be centralized there. “On the top floor of the Culinary Academy there will be a roof garden and people who like to have expensive dinners, parties and then whatever can order that and the food will be made down in the first floor. And there will be a special dumb elevator that will transport the food to the top,” said Isaac.
These plans will be carried out over the course of the next 15 years. With the plans in motion, the administration seeks to beautify the campus and create a better learning environment and experience for its faculty and students.
