MISSION COLLEGE : Sylmar Campus to Be Dedicated

Mission College will hold a ceremony to dedicate its new Sylmar campus at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the school’s Campus Center.

Guest speaker will be Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar). Mission’s president, Jack Fujimoto, will present “A Glimpse at the Future.”

The campus, 13356 Eldridge St., includes the two-story Campus Center, a two-story administrative-instructional building and a one-story campus services building. Plans call for more instructional buildings, athletic facilities, a cafeteria, a student health center and other additions.

Also on the program Tuesday will be Clarence Mangham, dean of facilities planning for the California Community Colleges in Sacramento; Julia Wu, Los Angeles Community College District board of trustees president, and Donald Phelps, college district chancellor.

Mission College opened its $25-million, 22-acre campus in August after operating out of rented storefronts and high school classrooms for 16 years. Enrollment jumped 26%, from 5,960 students in fall, 1990, to 7,520 this fall.

Classes were filled to capacity with 3,000 people on waiting lists, administrators said.

VALLEY COLLEGE

AIDS Class OKd; Creator Cited

After much debate, Valley College officials last week decided to reinstate an AIDS education class that was not included in the spring schedule because of budget constraints.

Meanwhile, the creator of the class, Valley College microbiology professor Lois Berquist was honored by the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees for creating the class, the district’s first AIDS information course that can be taken for college credit.

In reinstating the class, the Valley College Council turned over to the school’s budget committee the matter of how the class will be funded.

“I think the class should be offered no matter what,” said Jack Sterk, Academic Senate president and a council member. If the committee can’t approve funds, then a class will have to be deleted from somewhere else, he said.

More than 20 students attended the meeting to support reinstatement of the class.

“Ever since Magic Johnson announced his retirement, there’s been a real blanket of fear,” student Erika Abbott said. “There has to be more information instead of us finding out the hard way.”

Shannon Stack, chairwoman of the history department, recommended a one-day community service program, but some students said that wouldn’t be enough.

“Special programs are nice, but classes are better,” student Colette Griggsby said. “Sex isn’t something that rolls around for a special program.”

Ariadna Martinez agreed.

“Even if we study for the rest of our lives, we’re not going to learn everything,” Martinez said.

She said that if a choice had to be made between offering a general education class and an AIDS class, then AIDS should be the priority. “If you take an AIDS class, it could save your lives,” she said.

“We’re probably going to do what you want us to do, but not because you’re here and you want us to,” Valley College President Mary Lee told the students.

Berquist, on receiving the district award, said, “I hope this means a renewal in the district on AIDS education.”

Citing AIDS statistics to bring home the crisis to the college community, Berquist said that almost 200,000 people in the United States have gotten AIDS--more than all the students enrolled in the college district.

“Microorganisms do not discriminate,” she said.

“One hundred twenty thousand people are going through our institutions,” trustees’ Vice President Wallace Knox said. “Every one of those people needs to know what’s going on.”