Riverside City College (RCC) held a grand opening for its new Business and Law Computer Information Systems Building on Aug. 29. This comes after almost two decades of planning, alongside the building being out of service by RCC for over a decade.
The grand opening was introduced by Kristine Di Memmo, vice president of Business Services, and featured speeches given by Riverside Community College District (RCCD) Chancellor Wolde-Ab Isaac alongside prominent school and city officials such as RCC President Claire Oliveros, Philip Falcone, the Ward 1 councilman on the Riverside City Council..
In her grand opening speech, Dr. Claire Oliveros, president of Riverside City College, stated that the building is “a magnificent milestone and place of empowerment.”
The building was originally constructed in the mid-60s and served as the home for Physical and Life Science filled with laboratories, classrooms and faculty offices. Its reconstruction and purpose comes with a state-of-the-art courtroom classroom, a functioning Network Operations Center and a simulation lab. The new facilities allow students to take control of their education and allow them to excel in new ways. Students with a focus on Computer Science now have access to open labs where they can gain greater technical skills with hands-on learning. The functioning Network Operations Center simulates the environment of a professional security analyst. The simulation lab has technology that puts students at the forefront of innovation with virtual reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning. In addition to the new technology, a student lounge and multipurpose room gives students a new space to spend time and relax before they have to go to class.
“It’s pretty exciting to see it finished (as) it has been in construction since I got here and my programming teacher hyped it up because that’s where our new classroom is,” Jesse Valdovinos, mechanical engineering major, said. The reconstruction had a budget of $38.2 million. The final construction cost was $29.4 million. The project received money from the state, measure C, and other local resources. Nine different groups were involved in the project, with each playing a different role in making RCC’s vision a reality.
“This building is a testament to (the) commitment and vision of so many (people),” Oliveros said
Along with new state-of-the-art facilities for the students, the aim for the building is to get a gold certification ranking for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED). LEED gold certification is a certification that shows a building has sustainable design and operation. This coincides with RCCD’s Sustainability and Climate Action Plan which aims to lower its carbon footprint. In order to achieve this goal, solar panels are being added to the parking lot to add sustainable and reusable energy to RCC’s ecosystem.
