The awareness of hygiene issues in Cerritos College campus buildings, has brought a lot of attention to the board of administration, which in return started a health and safety project, which will take place this fall semester.

Two years ago, Cerritos College Speech professors Bill Sparks and Wendell Hanks decided to make a short movie by filming inside all of the campus sites and buildings that where neglected from serious maintenance work.

What they recorded brought a lot of attention towards students and school faculty, showing how the head of administration aren’t taking enough effort in keeping our school in a presentable manner for the community and for the students.

Shortly after the short film was released, the head of administration had a very significant reason to take action of the unsanitary conditions that the school was in, by having some buildings and restrooms repainted and remodeled. But what was much to the surprise of Hanks and Sparks, was when they took recent pictures of the facilities and restrooms, they did notice some change, but not major.

The impression that Cerritos College gives is hard to follow compared to major four-year universities that get thousands of applicants each year. Hanks believes that the way a school is preserved reflects on the students. “I’ve visited 37 schools one year, purposely to see how they’re set up, and the schools that are immaculate don’t have a problem with graffiti, because the students won’t permit it.” He also adds, “Name-brand schools like USC and UCLA are immaculate because they know facilities dictate the perception of the school,” said Hanks.

Bill Sparks, who has been apart of Cerritos College since 1995, has seen how the quality of the campus buildings progressed into an unhealthy problem. ” The rooms where a little bit more presentable when I first came here and it seems like every year that I’ve been here, its gotten a little bit worse,” Sparks added.

Sparks and Hanks, along with full support from Cerritos College President Linda Lacy, are now making strong repercussions by creating an awareness about the hygiene issues of what most of the buildings contain, which is graffiti, dirty stains on the walls, floors, ceilings of the classrooms, restrooms, even the outside buildings, which haven’t been fully asserted with complete attention.

Lacy, who has noticed the hygiene problem herself since she came onto the school board September of last year, has a plan to expedite with a health and safety project, to take care of the unfit conditions, starting by this fall.

“One of the things I wanted to look at was to figure out how with the existing staff that we could still accomplish really the goal of hygiene and making presentable restrooms for our students”. Lacy said.

As the project starts this fall some buildings are already being reconstructed. The entire hygiene process could take up to two years for complete success. But the main goal for Lacy and faculty staff members is to promote a healthy, safe, environment for Cerritos College students.