With the many budget cuts Cerritos College is experiencing, students are becoming upset that the school can afford to cut classes, but refuses to stop the construction on campus.

What students need to understand is that the money being used for campus construction has no relation whatsoever with the money that is included in the school’s budget for things such as classes, student activities, and payroll services.

Cerritos took action and made the right decision in carefully going about in asking for a G.O. Bond and Measure CC.

Measure CC is a local facilities bond measure that addresses the urgent and critical needs of an educational institution.

Because many of the infrastructure systems such as the roofs, plumbing, electrical, heating and sewers are about 50 years old, they are deteriorating or are continuosly disfuntioning. These problems needed to be addressed and repaired.

That is why the G.O. bond will fund urgent repairs and renovations of aging facilities of the school and construct new facilities in hopes of relieving the overcrowding of classrooms, meeting high enrollment demands, and ensuring safe and appropriate facilities for students.

The bond will also provide new classrooms, science and technology labs, as well as parking and student support facilities.

The money that is being put to these repairs, renovations, and construction is strictly for that and that only.

What is greatly misunderstood is what would occur if If the school were to stop the construction on campus.

Most students would like to think that Cerritos could easily discontinue its renovations and use that money to provide more classes.

That is where students are mistaken. If Cerritos were to do that, then it would have made the biggest mistake in its history because by losing the G.O. Bond, the school is then forced to find a way that it will pay for these renovations itself.

Cerritos College is in no position right now to afford any sort of expenditure on anything other than providing the most classes possible in this time of crisis where enrollment in community colleges is off the richter scale.

What students also fail to acknowledge is that the renovations and repairs that will be made were problems that were indentified by not only faculty, staff, independent facilities experts and an advisory committee of community residents and business leaders, but were also by students.

Although the instition is currently undergoing serious cutbacks, including cutting classes, in the long run, this will come as a great benefit not only to students, to also to teachers.

Eventually, when all the classes have been built and the budget becomes a bit more stable, more classes are going to be offered in the new classrooms and new teachers will need to be hired.

Right now, it may not seem necessary seeing as to how the school is actually cutting classes, but in the future when other institutions are going to be in need of more classrooms in order to reduce overcrowding, Cerritos will be ahead of the curve and will already have them.