A science lab in the Cunningham building at Delta College. Some instructors find the labs outdated. (Jennifer M. Howell/News-Sentinel)

Is Delta College's new $84 million math and science center really needed?

When Delta College trustees committed to building a new Cunningham Math and Science center, they agreed to spend nearly a third of the college's Measure L bond money on a single, high-tech building.

Now that building is funneling money away from other projects and has some people connected to the college asking if the school really needs it.

The new Cunningham building is envisioned as a large science and math complex with cutting-edge technology and a modern, open design that is much different than the cramped corridors and busy laboratories of the existing structure.

The college initially budgeted the Cunningham building at $38 million in December 2003. The budget grew to $61 million some time later, and in June, San Joaquin Delta College's new bond team told trustees that even that budget was a gross underestimate for the 100,000-square-foot structure.

Raul Rodriguez, Delta's president and superintendent, picked Lee Belarmino, vice president of information services for Delta, to lead the new bond team in April, said Greg Greenwood, spokesman for the college. Belarmino formed the rest of the team, which consists of about a dozen Delta employees and one consultant.

A few weeks after the June bond workshop, the team recommended that the Cunningham project be completed as designed.

Board agrees building needed

Team members said that not only is the building needed to accommodate extra students, but if the college backs out or changes its plan, it would risk losing $30 million in state funding for the project.

The board agreed.

"The great push in this country is math and science," trustee Anthony Bugarin said at the meeting where board members voted to go through with the project.

The agreement to go ahead with the Cunningham project contributed to the decision to nix an $8.5 million district support services center. It also dipped deeply into funds that could have funded other up-in-the-air projects, including a satellite campus in Lodi.

Out of the $250 million bond that the college passed in 2004, only $64 million is left to go toward the college's Lodi, Mountain House and Manteca campuses. That's $31.6 million less that what the board originally budgeted for the three projects. The Mountain House project alone is currently budgeted for $94.2 million.

Delta trustees have yet to decide the fate of the satellite campuses. District officials seem to be getting increasingly comfortable with the idea of a pared-down plan for each of the sites.

The new bond team recommended that the college build the Cunningham building for several reasons, Belarmino said.

First, he said, the current Cunningham building, constructed in 1975, is inadequate for the college's math and science needs.

"My understanding is we really needed more lab space," Belarmino said.

Instructors also told the bond team that the current building's layout is inefficient for running lab classes smoothly. Supply rooms can be quite a distance from the labs they serve, creating headaches for instructors and lab technicians.

One instructor said the tables in the labs are too wide for group work. The lab stations don't have Internet access, which makes it difficult to run simulations or share data. In his classroom, none of the tables have gas piped to them to run experiments. They also don't have a sufficient number of electrical outlets.

Belarmino said the people who built the Cunningham building and the rest of the Delta campus designed as far into the future as their vision could carry them.

"They had no idea how computers were going to work," Belarmino said.

Bond team considers options

The bond team considered all its options: delaying the project, constructing a smaller version or remodeling the existing building. Each option had downsides, they said, and could incur greater or equal costs with lesser results.

The biggest of the fiscal issues is that the college would most likely lose close to $30 million in state funding if they change the project significantly.

The plans, which have already been submitted to the state, call for demolishing the existing Cunningham building. Should Delta decide to keep the existing Cunningham building, the college would violate their agreement with the state and lose its funding.

Pulling out of the agreement with the state might also jeopardize future funding requests, members of the bond team said at the June 26 bond workshop.

The bond team cautioned that putting the project out to bid now, while the market is favorable, would keep costs down. Redesigning the building, on the other hand, would incur additional costs and delay the project further. It's assumed that the cost of materials needed to construct the building would continue to increase during the delay.

Greenwood said one of the reasons that the project has become so expensive in the first place is the rising cost of materials over time.

Still, knowing the circumstances, some instructors say that the building is a money pit, draining bond funds away from other projects.

"Most of us have been against this since the conception," said one veteran science instructor, who preferred to remain anonymous. "There's absolutely no reason for a new building, as far as I'm concerned."

The instructor suggested that the administration has let the existing Cunningham building decay as an excuse to build a new one. He said most staff members won't even use the restroom unless they absolutely have to because they're so dirty.

He also worries that the new Cunningham building will be filled with the old equipment. If that's true, he said, all instructors are going to have are new walls, which, he says, doesn't make sense.

"I could teach my class in a tent," he said.

Disagreement

Other staff members don't feel quite the same way.

Nina Bookman, a senior science laboratory technician, works in the Cunningham building, making sure lab classes get all the materials they need. Her office, the first-floor prep room, is packed with chemicals, test tubes and models.

In the last few days of summer session, working in the prep room isn't too bad, she said. Come fall semester, though, she'll have students, assistants and professors crammed into the small space from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

"When it isn't working, it becomes pretty obvious," said one professor about the prep room.

Bookman's looking forward to the day when she has a better-planned space to work with.

According to current designs, the new building will consist of two interconnected structures with open-air walkways, similar to the spaces already found on Delta's campus, Greenwood said.

Renderings show the building has have a crisp design with lines that fit into the campus, skyline and a glass-contained staircase.

Though the new Cunningham building was designed to fit in with the rest of the college, some say it's fairly modern-looking as well.

Whether one agrees or not, the building is sure to be the jewel of the campus.

Belarmino has high expectations for the new Cunningham building, too.

"It is totally state-of-the-art," he said. "All the things that (we) wish were in the building, are."

Contact reporter Amanda Dyer at amandad@lodinews.com.