Spevak: A new permanent Los Banos Campus opens during its fourth decade

This is the fourth in a series about the Los Banos Campus of Merced College, which will celebrate its golden anniversary with a festive family-friendly campus celebration on Nov. 5, 2021, from 4 to 6 p.m., to which the entire community is invited. This article narrates the campus’s fourth decade, from 2001 to 2011.

In 2002 Merced College included on the ballots of the county’s Westside voters a $11.93 million general bond measure that, if passed, would fund the construction of a permanent brick-and-mortar facility for the Los Banos Campus of Merced College just west of Los Banos on Highway 152.

The facility would be built on 125 acres of land donated by Larry and Georgeann Anderson. It would be the first Los Banos Campus designed and built as permanent structures. The bond would also pay for site development and parking lots for students and staff.

The new facility would not only provide additional classrooms and computer labs but also space for much needed biology and chemistry labs never before available to campus students. There was also a guarantee in the bond measure that all funds from the bond would be spent in Los Banos for the new campus.

In the fall 2002 many community members stepped forward to vocally support the bond, which would add $24 per $100,000 of assessed valuation to property tax bills. Especially welcome was the support of two key agricultural leaders, Aldo Sansoni and Pat Palazzo; Los Banos mayor Michael Amabile, an alumnus of the campus; and members of the Los Banos Chamber of Commerce.

Anne Newins, dean of the Los Banos Campus, in her evening and weekend hours organized groups of community volunteers who went door to door for many weeks to talk about the bond measure.

The volunteers explained to owners of homes and businesses in Los Banos and Dos Palos how the additional tax dollars would be wisely spent to build a facility that would benefit their communities for years to come.

The measure needed 55% voter approval to pass. When the evening of November 5, 2002, was over, voters from the Los Banos and Dos Palos school districts had passed the measure with a 66% yes vote.

Los Banos Campus students and staff expressed their appreciation for such overwhelming support. Soon the dean, faculty and staff began working with architects from the Lionakis architectural firm to help design a user-friendly facility that would serve the needs of campus students for years to come.

Before long, site development began and afterwards construction started. In the spring of 2005 Dean Anne Newins left Los Banos to become Merced College’s vice president of student services. Karyn Dower, who had earned her master’s degree in psychology, was named acting dean in the summer of 2005 by college president Ben Duran and a year later was named ongoing dean.

In close collaboration with Merced College’s VP of Administrative Services Larry Johnson, Dower worked closely with the construction site manager to make sure the project was proceeding on schedule and on budget.

During the summer of 2007 college staff began to move equipment and materials from the facility on Mercey Springs Road to the new campus. New equipment, especially for the science labs, was also installed. By fall 2007 campus was ready to open, less than five years after the bond passed.

On September 7, 2007, a grand opening was held at the new Los Banos Campus of Merced College. Students appreciated taking classes in new state-of-the art buildings.

In the spring of 2008, Dean Dower returned to the Merced campus as dean of workforce development, and in July 2008, after a nation-wide search Dr. Brenda Latham was named ongoing dean of the Los Banos Campus. Latham, who earned her Ph.D. in biology from Syracuse University, had been a physical and natural sciences professor at the campus and was a popular choice for the position.

Latham quickly reached out to the community and became a member of various City of Los Banos committees and commissions, as well as a member and later president of the Los Banos Rotary Club.

As academic years rolled on, the campus continued to see enrollment grow, when more and more residents of Los Banos, Dos Palos and Santa Nella came to take classes. Students interested in allied health fields like nursing, radiography, and sonography especially appreciated the opportunity to fulfill all their prerequisites in Los Banos.

As the campus’s fourth decade came to a close, college staff continued to ensure that the support demonstrated by the community would be reciprocated by the continuing development and expansion of educational opportunities for all Westside residents of Merced County.