Officials Dedicate Mission College Site

By SOLOMON MOORE

Politicians and educators dedicated the site of a
planned 20,000-square-foot classroom building
Wednesday that will ease overcrowding at Mission
College, the Los Angeles Community College District's
smallest campus.

Standing near a rendering of the proposed
$4.7-million structure were district Chancellor Mark
Drummond, state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar),
Mission's interim president, Thomas Oliver, and
Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar), who many
credit with securing the funds.

Construction is due to begin next summer.
The state building funds were secured in June, after
administrators at the college missed three different
spending deadlines. Mission's president at the time,
William Norlund, chose to retire following the funding
fiasco. Cardenas and Alarcon fought hard to retrieve
the money after it reverted back to state coffers.
The building will house classrooms, laboratories and
offices.

While Cardenas has often groused about Mission's
initial mishandling of the money, he said he is happy the
project has finally gotten off the ground.

"I think this is the first building that has been a result
of my work," he said. "I've done a lot of things with
getting funding and changing laws, but this is the first
time my work is going to result in something that you
can touch and feel. That's pretty exciting."

Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times