MISSION COLLEGE : Vote May Bring Funds for Growth

If voters approve Proposition 153 on Tuesday, Mission College will receive $8 million to build a state-of-the-art library and learning resource center on its still-developing campus, officials said.

In addition, the Sylmar college could receive about $7 million to buy land for a vocational and technical arts building, a fine arts complex and a physical educational building near the campus, Mission President Jack Fujimoto said.

The library and resource complex could be completed by 1996, Fujimoto said. Currently, the library operates out of a cramped basement in the student center, leaving little room for vocational and educational equipment.

“We don’t have enough seating space. We don’t have enough equipment,” said Rayma Greenberg, chairwoman of the library department. “We have people lined up to use our one automated periodical index. We have noise problems and security problems.”

The new complex would be a “lab for life,” Greenberg said. Built on the main campus, it would include a radio and television workshop, a teleconference room, facilities for journalism and theater students and computers for educational and vocational labs.

Greenberg said the opportunity for job training should interest the community. “This kind of building can support a lot of vocational programs. I think people should be very interested in doing something to get people jobs.”

Fujimoto called the proposed complex crucial to the college’s commitment to serve students and the community. “It’s the heart and guts of a college,” he said.

The ballot measure, called the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act, would generate $900 million in general obligation bond funding for a two-year building program for the state’s institutions of higher education. Mission would receive $712,000 in 1992 to proceed with working drawings for the library complex.

The $7 million in site acquisition funds for the physical education, vocational arts and fine arts buildings at Mission are lower priorities on the state’s list of projects for Proposition 153 funding and less likely to be approved, Fujimoto said.

However, he said, he hopes that the state would recognize the college’s growth and not delay funding until it is too late.

Already, “a lot of the traditional curriculum is out the door,” he said.