By Camila A. Gonzalez
Construction requires steel, concrete, wood, nails, dry wall … and truckloads of patience.
That is the message from campus leaders as Southwestern College undergoes an unprecedented transformation and suffers unprecedented challenges.
Aurora Ayala insists the dust, mud, fencing, detours and noise will all be worth it someday soon.
“With construction comes disruption,” she said. “We ask our students and everyone in our community to be patient during construction.”
Ayala, the director of facilities, is managing the multi-pronged, decades-long remake of Southwestern College.
“We are making generational impacts with our projects,” said Ayala. “It may be an inconvenience for about a year and a half, but the long-term, 20-year benefit outweighs the one-year inconvenience.”
Ayala said the work is long overdue.
“A lot of the buildings are from the 1960s,” she said. “If we continue to expand and offer the most competitive educational experience to our students, we must continue to innovate our facilities. Everything we do we do it with (students) in mind.”
College President Dr. Mark Sanchez said he had a memorable first week on the job when faculty in the 85-music building reported issues with excrement and sewage spewing from the restrooms.
“Construction should have been done a long time ago,” he said. “The pipeline (was) the same pipeline from when the college opened in 1961. It should have been replaced back in 2005. When you have toilets overflowing with waste, I think about the message it sends to the students, faculty and staff. They should have patience because this should have been done a long time ago and it was not.”
Governing Board Member Robert Moreno said he is excited for students and what is to come. He sympathizes with students who must navigate pathways that evoke labyrinths.
“I have seen how much of a distraction and inconvenience the construction is,” he said. “I have gotten lost myself. I understand, but patience is all we have. It will all be worth it.”
