Walking onto campus this fall semester, some students have noticed a change on campus – the return of flowing water in the Moorpark College fountains.

“This is my fifth year at campus. It’s been two years since I last saw it on, and I’m glad that it’s back on for once,” said Brian Sezgin, 22, liberal studies major.

Moorpark College’s fountains are back, but there is a catch – they’ll only be here for a month. After some consideration by the faculty deans, the head of maintenance John Sinutko and President Luis Sanchez, the fountains will be making their potentially final appearance at Moorpark College this semester.

“I don’t think it’s likely to be turned on in the way that we see it now,” said Sanchez. “More than likely what we’re looking at is changing the configuration to use some low water usage fountain.”

In the two years that the fountains have been dormant, the campus has saved over 95 million gallons of water, in addition to hard work spent fine tuning every spout, according to Sinutko and the maintenance department.

The college’s administration is more than aware of the downside to having the fountains shut off, though. The empty basin left in front of Fountain Hall poses safety concerns for skateboarders and pedestrians, in addition to not complimenting the campus visually.

“Without the fountain turned on right now, it’s not very pretty, and it’s a bit of a safety hazard,” said Sanchez. “So we need to do something with it.”

Administration and Maintenance will be deciding what to do with the fountains in the future, though it’s agreed that the current setup will most likely not be returning after its one-month tenure. In the meantime, both students and faculty are enjoying the spectacle.

“We’ve had quite a few employees that periodically will say, ‘are we ever going to turn on that fountain again,’ so it made me really happy to see the water going up,” said Sanchez.

For some, the fountain has brought a new sense of life to the north side of campus, one that most first and second year students have never experienced.

“It’s actually really nice,” said Brandon Cerda, 18, Chemistry major. “When I came here a couple of weeks ago it wasn’t on, and then recently I just noticed…it looks pretty nice when it’s on during the daytime. When it’s turned off… it’s kind of dull in this area, but when it’s on, it feels nice, especially when the breeze hits, and you can feel some of the water kind of splashing on you.”

The fountains will be disabled sometime in September, leaving students to once again reminisce about the view.

“It makes the campus shine even better. When I walk this exact path, I always miss the little shine it gives out every single time,” said Sezgin.