The second decade of Merced College Los Banos Campus begins in tumult, ends in success

This is the second of a series about the Merced College Los Banos Campus, which will celebrate its golden anniversary with a campus celebration on Nov. 5, 2021, to which the entire community is invited. This article narrates the campus’s second decade, 1981-1991.

At the start of the 1981-82 school year, the Merced College Los Banos Campus of Merced College had no campus. The lease on the rented building on L Street had expired, and the new modular facility on Mercey Springs Road — on a 10-acre site donated by Los Banos resident Richard Menezes — was still a year from completion.

Classes were taught during the 1981-82 academic year in many different places around town: in a vacated furniture store, in a storefront on I Street that would later become an insurance agency, at the Los Banos High School and in a small building that belonged to the city’s Park and Recreation Department in Talbot Park.

In the Talbot Park building was one classroom, the office of campus coordinator and faculty member Bob Edminster, a small bookstore and a bathroom, whose toilet would often overflow with water seeping into the rest of the building. One of the three full-time faculty members held his office hours at Jerry’s Restaurant on Pacheco Boulevard.

During that academic year, the pre-built modular buildings gradually arrived at the Mercey Springs site (now the site of Mercey Springs Elementary School) and were set on foundations. One staff member, seeing the trucks carrying the modulars go down Pacheco Boulevard, cried out, “Here comes my new college!”

Community residents rallied behind the college in 1981-82, taking classes at the many different sites, and the college survived.

In the fall of 1982, the college had a grand opening on Mercey Springs, and a campus was back in Los Banos. However, there were still problems. For one thing, it was renamed “The Westside Center” and it had no dean, just a Merced administrator who would come by periodically. It stayed that way for three years, until a new Merced College president was hired, Tom Harris.

In 1985 Harris named English instructor and Los Banos resident John Spevak as acting dean. Dean Spevak became involved in college meetings and advocated strongly for the campus. He showed college personnel in Merced that the “center” was not a drain on the college’s budget, as some people mistakenly believed, but actually helped the college’s revenue. And the facility’s name returned to being the “Los Banos Campus.”

Little by little more full-time faculty were hired for the campus, including child development instructor Barbara Penney. And little by little, more college funding made its way to Los Banos, including allocations for a new childcare center on campus.

Plans were made for another modular building, specifically designed as a childcare center and child development laboratory. Funding for equipping the center came from a $40,000 donation from Richard Menezes, the same person who donated the Mercey Springs site. The childcare center was set to open in January 1992.

From 1985 to 1991 the campus’s enrollment grew each year as more and more classes and programs were added, including for the first time computer technology courses.

The campus developed closer ties with the Los Banos Unified School District and a plan was developed to make it easier for high school seniors to take college classes during the day at the campus.

On October 26, 1991, the campus celebrated its 20th anniversary with a barbecue, music, balloons, face paintings, recognitions of LBC alumni, and a “This is Your Life” presentation with highlights of the campus’s two decades.

Between 1981 and 1991, the Los Banos Campus had not only survived. It was thriving, continuing to help thousands of residents of Los Banos and Dos Palos earn degrees and credentials, building better lives for themselves and their families.