Con: Measure J supporters say it is badly needed. That message is false

I would like to address the arguments of those supporting Merced College’s Measure J in the upcoming election. In the voter pamphlet and elsewhere, supporters present two main claims in support of the bond: They assert the need to repair 40-year-old buildings, and the need to accommodate growing enrollments. Both of these claims are obviously unsound.

This is because the plan is not simply to repair existing buildings but to needlessly tear several down and rebuild new ones. Further, as anyone can see, on-campus enrollment is not increasing in any way that would suggest a need for more space.

Having just retired from Merced College last semester, I have a pretty good recollection of the classrooms within which I taught, and most were relatively new while the rest worked just fine. No one really believes that buildings need to be torn down and replaced because they are 40 years old, as there are perfectly good buildings all over the world that are hundreds of years old.

If repairs and upgrades to existing buildings need to be made, then taxpayers should be presented with that bill. The cost of tearing down perfectly good structures and rebuilding them from scratch should not be borne by taxpayers.

The second claim regarding increased enrollment is easily refuted by the high number of cancelled classes that the college is experiencing this semester due to low enrollment. While running errands on two occasions in the middle of the day, I took the opportunity to drive around the college’s parking lots, and both times at least one-third of the spaces were empty. It is wrong to ask taxpayers to fork over a half billion dollars — the price by the time all of the work is done — rather than simply schedule more classes when the campus is nearly empty.

Any recent increase in enrollment is due to new programs taught in the high schools, prisons, and increased online offerings. These new programs are not taught on the Merced or Los Banos campuses; thus, there is no need for more buildings.

Since I started at Merced College in 1990, student enrollment has increased by 25%. The needs for this increase have been met by four new structures: the new buildings for humanities and social science, the new nursing complex, and a new library. We are currently lacking an agriculture complex, which is already funded by a bond that was approved in 2002.

Merced County is the third poorest in California as nearly 25% of the population lives in poverty. Of course we need to invest in education to lift our neighbors out of poverty; however, this also makes deceiving them into spending money unnecessarily all the more insidious.

Voters deserve the truth about Measure J prior to the election. Supporters of Measure J appear to want it both ways: They want to drive up student enrollment by providing more classes off campus, then they want to use that increased enrollment to argue they need more classrooms on campus. No one should fall for that.