In early 2004, the voters in parts of Santa Clara and San Benito counties just barely approved Measure E, a $108 million bond for specific projects related to Gavilan Community College.
One of primary projects used to sell Measure E to the San Benito County voters was the promise of a campus in the county:
“SAN BENITO CAMPUS • Establish Gavilan College Education Center in San Benito County to Accommodate Growth and Increasing Student Enrollment: Provide permanent classrooms, labs, library, job training and college transfer counseling and partner with a 4-year university to allow residents to obtain a bachelor’s degree without commuting. Improvements in the San Benito County campus will be made with a combination of bond monies and State matching funds.”
Sounds great, but none of that has happened in more than 10 years. Since 2004, the combination of decisions by Gavilan to prioritize the campus in Coyote Valley, spend about $8 million just for local land, and the state’s doubling of the Full-Time Equivalent Student minimums from 500 to 1,000 for an independent campus means that a San Benito campus is not even in the foreseeable future.
While planning is good, giving up too much of the present for uncertain prospects has unacceptable negative effects, and that is what’s going on as we slavishly stick to long-range plans that have been overcome by events. Worse, millions in hard-to-come-by dollars are tied up in real estate that is doing nothing to make education easier for our young students in economic stress and millions more will be required for environmental mitigation of the proposed campus.
The commute time to Gilroy is a killer for those who need to work or care for a young family while they try to further their education and skills. If you can’t make the bus schedule, there is also the substantial cost; even if you use the bus there is the wasted time. In either case, commuting is not an environmentally- or traffic-friendly solution.
Why are we making it hard for the system’s customers? Forget the “campus” the state will not approve; if San Benito County had a comprehensive, enlarged Education Center, as it should, it could provide more and better opportunities for our population.
Financing the solution seems obvious; in addition to the bond funds still available, the college should sell the land it acquired – assuming it is worth what they paid for it or more – and use those millions to put a facility on the old Leatherback site. No state help is available, and none would be required.
Finally, they have to step up the pace of change, letting cohorts of students suffer while the wheels of administration grinds the system and dollars to dust is simply self-defeating neglect. The time to start supplying the product and service to the taxpayers, where they need it, is overdue.