There’s a silver lining in GCCCD budget and enrollment cuts: unimpeded construction

GROSSMONT COLLEGE (Press Release)–It’s summertime but the living is anything but easy at Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges, where building crews will take advantage of reduced traffic to tackle $38 million in construction projects.

If there is an upside to budget woes significantly reducing summer enrollment, it is that the colleges are able to do construction jobs with less worry about disrupting classes or taking up parking spaces.

Reduced state funding has forced the colleges to cut by half the number of course sections offered this summer compared to last year. At Grossmont College, summer class sections have been cut from 210 in 2010 to 113 this year. Cuyamaca is offering 44 course sections this summer compared to 88 a year ago.  With fewer classes, enrollment has also been cut in half – about 3,100 students are attending Grossmont this summer and about 1,200 are at Cuyamaca.

Groundskeepers, maintenance spring clean

Martin Hipwell replaces a busted sprinkler-head.

Russell Lindquist

Story and photos by Russell Lindquist

GROSSMONT COLLEGE–While the students are away, maintenance workers will … work, work, work! They will be on campus throughout Spring break. For them, it is business-as-usual.

Plenty of the work is typical: window washing, mopping, lawn mowing. Yet, with students temporarily missing from the campus (except for a few, here and there) maintenance workers and construction crews are freed to do some of the work that is too intrusive during Grossmont’s normal hours-of-operation.

Among the exceptional work is to pour new concrete in the Arts area so that the ground will be smoother thus less likely to cause students to trip.

Photographer essays campus construction

Work crew in front of the tech mall

Sanchez

GROSSMONT COLLEGE–The construction tableau changes from week-to-week, even from day-to-day as work crews rebuild, refurbish and revitalize the campus.  Photographer Bobby Sanchez took a walk on campus last week to check out the progress.   Here’s what he saw.   If you walk on campus today, you can see changes even from these photos.

All the mess that lines the back part of the Cafeteria. You can also find this yellow caution tape around the side of the quad in front of the book store.