L.A. Community College District Investing $2 Billion in Its Nine Campuses

Chancellor, the voters of Los Angeles have positively responded to the bond issues that have been put forward by the Community College District in the last five years. Please give us an overview of the projects that have been funded by these bonds.

We now have just over $2 billion to invest in facilities at our nine colleges in Los Angeles, and that investment will help ensure that all of those colleges are pretty thoroughly transformed from a situation that, candidly, was embarrassing. It was unacceptable. Now, we are creating learning environments that are appropriate for people who are preparing for careers, who are preparing to transfer to baccalaureate institutions, who are new to our society and economy, and who are getting the skills and abilities they need to be successful. Our facilities will be comparable to those available at the University of California and California State University, which is what these students deserve.

A lot of TPR's readers know there is a Community College District, but many may not know its mission, that there are nine campuses, or that there are almost 100,000 full-time-equivalent students. What needs and purposes are being served by the bonds?

First and foremost, the bonds will address our facilities issues, as I just mentioned. This district is the largest in the state; it includes nine colleges, from Harbor College in the south all the way to Mission College in Sylmar and from East L.A. College in Monterey Park to West L.A. College in Culver City. Our mission is to serve as a comprehensive educational resource to our local communities. Of course we provide what people used to think of as the work of the junior colleges: the first two years of four-year programs and two-year career or technical programs, preparing people to enter the workforce. But we also serve important continuing education needs for working people and other adults. And, we also are seeing a growing need for what is sometimes called "remedial education," where people haven't been successful or particularly well-served by elementary and secondary schools, and so they come to us not yet prepared to do college-level work. Furthermore, in addition to serving students directly, we also have a large number of secondary clients, particularly employers, who come to us for specialized and uniquely crafted programs for their employees and potential hires. Finally, we are often the port of first entry for new citizens and new residents in the area.

The bond packages were critical to meeting our needs for facilities that enable teachers to teach according to contemporary standards and that provide students opportunities to learn in an environment that is conducive to debate and conversation and engagement, and to working in teams, not just the standard "chalk and talk." The troubling thing is that while we will have much-improved facilities because of the bonds, they don't provide added support to hire faculty and offer classes. The fact is we have too few resources to serve all of the students we need to serve, because the state artificially cuts off our funding after a certain number of students enroll. We are turning away students now, when we should be adding more.

The facilities bonds were authorized by two propositions, Prop. A and Prop. AA. What were the essential promises that the district made to the voters for the money you received?

We have a very long list of bond projects that is comprised of both new construction, usually between one and five new buildings at an individual college, as well as a very broad array of rehabilitation and upgrade projects. The third major category of projects will update and improve basic infrastructure elements like roadways, parking lots, electrical systems, heating and cooling, fire alarms, etc.

The district's nine campuses exist in a built-out, urban environment. How will the LA Community College District collaborate and jointly plan with other public agencies, such as with Cities and school districts, to invest facility bond funds to meet more than the single objective of building more classrooms? Is this already happening? Is it realistic?

To be honest, there is not a lot of intensive discussion about joint use of our facilities because, frankly, we are already at or near our physical capacity at many of our colleges. So, there is not a lot of joint planning. But there are other ways in which we are trying to be responsive to broader community needs. First of all, the Board of Trustees has a very definite policy about sustainability and energy efficiency. We are incorporating sustainable features into our plans so that energy and water consumption will be minimized in these buildings, saving us significant future operating dollars. In addition, the Board has a very ambitious program to ensure that local, small and emerging companies will participate in the bond program, particularly at the subcontractor and some of the consultant levels. They are seeking to ensure that 28 percent of the dollars raised through the sale of the bonds are reinvested in the community through local firms.

Obviously, the missions of K-12 education and community colleges complement and often overlap each other. How could each advance their agenda through collaborative design and joint facilities projects?

Currently, our most robust connections are with the some of the local high schools. A good example is the actual co-location of a teacher preparation high school at Harbor College. As the Harbor College Master Plan is built out, the high school there will take over and renovate one of the facilities currently being used by the college. It's a good relationship because that high school is also integrated programmatically with Harbor College, so that high school students there can be concurrently enrolled as college students, getting college credit for some of their studies before they even graduate from high school.

In the successful revitalization of City Heights in San Diego, one of the critical developments essential to tranforming the neighborhood was inclusion of a community college annex. An adult education facility combined with a new library, park, and K-12 school resulted in a new, vibrant urban core. How are you thinking about linking resources together to create vibrant places that transform communities and the neighborhoods that are home to your campuses?

Well, one place where that is at the core of our ambitions is South Gate. In addition to our nine college campuses, we have two education centers that are part of this bond program. We have some property in South Gate, and we are working in collaboration with the city to turn that part of the community into a genuine community space through mixed use. The plans aren't fully defined yet, but it should be a unique way to combine a college environment with retail and perhaps some residential.

Chancellor, you now oversee a $2 billion program on nine campuses. Clearly, you didn't become Chancellor with a desire to become a real estate developer. How do you mesh your facility responsibilities with all of your other educational responsibilities in an intelligent way?

We were fortunate to recruit a very good executive director, who does have extensive construction and development experience in the university setting. So, he brought a lot of expertise. Frankly, in some ways this process is a lot harder on our college presidents than it is on me. We all have to deal with the detailed planning of all of these facilities, mastering new concepts and terms, and the whole different culture of the construction trade and building development professionals, but the presidents and faculty and staff at the colleges also must handle all of the myriad details of remodeling your house while you are still living in it. That is what they are trying to do. Lucky me, I get to stay at the district office and worry about the more abstract parts like environmental impact report procedures, bidding processes and bond counsel opinions!

Let's get more specific so that we can better understand the colleges' bond program. For example, how many projects are planned at L.A. Trade Technical College?

The first major project at L.A. Trade Tech is what they call the South Campus Complex, which includes taking some existing facilities and athletic facilities and building a partially subterranean parking facility with a field on top. That needs to be done first, because one of the new buildings has to house people from the northern part of the campus before work begins there. Each of those individual pieces brings its own set of interruptions to the normal operation of the college, and each has to fit like a puzzle piece with the next. The result of all of this will be even more than a college that is completely transformed on the interior. In the case of L.A. Trade Tech, the whole Grand Avenue corridor between Washington and 23rd will be completely renovated and changed. It will be kind of an urban oasis by the end.

There has been much news about problems arising in public projects from the competition of the MTA, LAUSD, and other agencies for materials and resources, as well as escalating prices for raw materials around the country and the world. Given that these bond measures were passed a few years ago, how are you dealing with rising costs?

We have a fairly rigorous process for every project that includes what we call "value engineering," where a third party looks at the plans and suggests alternative approaches and substitute materials that would maintain the level of functionality and the overall design and appearance of the building at lower cost. That frequently saves significant amounts of money, and sometimes only marginal amounts, but on balance will have a material benefit. We bring in somebody with extensive experience in building facilities to identify any ambiguities, mistakes, and missing details that would lead to change orders, so that the plans we send out for bid are as thorough, complete, accurate, and easily buildable as possible. To the extent possible, we are doing volume bidding. We do collaborate with other districts, including LAUSD and other community college districts throughout the state, to seek the lowest possible prices for furniture and equipment through combined volume bid arrangements. Finally, we constantly monitor the price of these projects by having multiple estimates at several stages, so that we aren't vulnerable to the surprise of having the bid come way over the budget. Those are the mechanisms we have devised so far to respond, but I have to tell you that price escalation has been so rapid and so substantial that it is a problem - one that will force us to scale back our plans while we continue to look for other sources of funding.