Construction on College Complex level two is finally complete, following a multi-semester journey which started in Fall of 2023 to repair a crack in the ceiling.
“The project planning started in Fall 2023 with construction starting in Fall 2024,” Dr. Carlos Montoya, Vice President of Business and Administrative services said. “The repair was to the roof of the second floor walkway to ensure the structural safety of the building,” Dr. Montoya explained.
A major pathway to classes needed to be blocked in the process, presenting an obstacle to both students and staff.
“We are limited with the number of computer labs that we have on campus, so CC2-232 and 236 — the computer labs that were impacted — that was kind of difficult,” Irene Sukhu, Senior Academic Scheduling Specialist, mentioned of the impact the construction had on scheduling. “There’s four classrooms in the math building, so I was able to schedule classes in those math classrooms,” Sukhu continued, citing that certain classes, like business and computer science classes, needed to be moved in the process.
“I was notified in the beginning of Fall ‘23, and classes had already started. So, we had to act quickly, and move the classes to other classrooms,” Sukhu shared, mentioning that in both Spring and Fall 2024 there were not any classes scheduled that would have been affected by the maintenance.
Scheduling wasn’t just an obstacle for Sukhu, Dr. Montoya also faced obstacles related to the project.
“There were challenges given the age of the facility, and the planning process needed to complete a project of this scope,” Dr. Montoya shared.
When construction finished, some faculty emailed Sukhu requesting the reopened classrooms.
“That’s kind of exciting, because, I mean, it kind of made us think about ‘should we transform other classrooms into computer labs?’ Like, maybe we need more computer labs,” Sukhu said. “But, when faculty emailed me, I was like, ‘okay they do need computers,’ so [faculty] were excited that they were available,” Sukhu continued.
Student Soleil Rabsatt found the construction caused issues when taking her usual route to classes on the second floor of the College Complex building.
“The construction was somewhat an obstacle in Fall 2024,” Rabsatt said, adding that she needed to find an alternate path to a philosophy class. “It was somewhat difficult to access,” she shared. Rabsatt was unaware of the state of the construction until she saw it for herself.
The end of the construction in Spring 2025 means reopened availability of classrooms on level two of the College Complex building, less of an obstacle regarding scheduling, and even less of a physical obstacle to students and staff as a whole.
Dr. Montoya shared that there are no current plans for future construction to the school at this time.
