EL CAJON (Press Release) — The nine-year era of building and renovation under Proposition R has come to a close at Cuyamaca College with the completion of its $4.1 million library expansion.
The 3,950-square-foot addition to the learning resource center is the last of the campus’ new facilities and building expansions funded through Prop. R, the $207 million facilities bond measure approved by East County voters in 2002 to address severe shortages of classroom and lab space at Cuyamaca and Grossmont colleges.
An official notice of project completion was filed at Tuesday night’s governing board meeting.
“The LRC expansion is a feather in the cap, a wonderful way to close a phenomenal chapter in the history of Cuyamaca College,” said Cindy L. Miles, chancellor of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District. “Like the other new and upgraded facilities that have changed the face of this campus so dramatically, the library’s added space means being able to serve the college’s growing enrollment and providing high-tech features to improve the quality of education.”
The LRC expansion project was built with a combination of state bond funds and Prop. R dollars to serve a growing student population.
The final Prop. R project, renovation of a Student Services complex and an expansion of the Student Center at Grossmont College, is set to be completed in winter 2011.
“As Prop. R construction nears its end, we are proud to point out that independent audits confirm that public monies have been spent exactly as promised to voters and the projects were built within budget and on schedule,” Governing Board President Bill Garrett said.
Cuyamaca’s renovated Learning Resource Center expands space for the Disabled Student Services High-Tech Center, tutoring services, and instructional support services. The additional space for the support services was in response to the increased demand for online learning as well as educational electronic materials.
The high-tech center for students with disabilities has 14 work stations with large screen monitors and tools such as text-to-speech, text magnification, voice recognition and amplification software, ergonomic keyboards and mice and other assorted software and hardware. The center, geared to the 1,000 students in Cuyamaca’s Disabled Students Programs and Services, or DSP&S, helps users learn about assistive computer technologies and is also where they go to pick up alternative media formats of their textbooks, such as textbooks on CD, electronic text, large print and braille.
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Preceding provided by Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District
