Oxnard College is undergoing a host of renovation projects to improve technology, the student service center and eventually the campus library, all funded with Measure S bond money.
Will Diets, Computer Communication Technician for Oxnard College said that Oxnard was in need of a number of infrastructural updates.
“In updating our computers and classroom technology, there are a host of challenges. You need a big area to house servers.”
The building that houses the major technology center of campus houses the library as well. These parts are known as the Information Technology Center and Learning Resource Center, respectively. The IT portion is currently being updated to include more modern phone services, higher grade wiring, better internet connections in the classroom, and basically a better ability to provide distance learning. The updates to IT should be finished around the beginning of next year.
“The basic purpose of these projects are to maximize the learning students do at OC,” Deits said. “The IT update should be done around the first of the year.”
The IT expansion and improvement has swallowed up the mailroom which has been moved back down the hall, to its original location from several years before.
Plans to expand the library are tentative with no set start date, said Deits. An updated library would provide a place for students to study and congregate.
Current construction on campus includes a warehouse and the already approved new student services building, which will house admissions, records, financial aid, and campus police. After these are finished the next project is to expand the library.
The improvements are all funded by Measure S, the bond that voters approved in March 2002. The measure approved the creation of $356.3 million to go towards updating the Oxnard, Moorpark, and Ventura College campuses.
The bond funded Moorpark College’s new library center and is paying for the Child Development Center now under construction. At Ventura College, the bond has paid for new athletic facilities, parking lot renovations, a cadaver room ventilation system and a new Learning Resource Center.
