YEAR IN REVIEW: Sutter campus for Yuba
As we get closer to the end of 2012, it’s time to look back at what made news in the Appeal-Democrat over the past year. Over 10 consecutive days ending Monday, we are running stories – in chronological order – on each of our top 10 stories of 2012.
Disagree with our choices? You can go to the A-D website at www.appealdemocrat.com and vote for your own top 10 stories from among 20 choices or add your own. We will print the results on Jan. 3.
After years of a visible presence in Yuba, Colusa, Lake and Yolo counties, Yuba College finally got a campus of its own in Sutter County in 2012, in the form of a two-story, 55,000-square-foot building on Pease Road in Yuba City.
In August, some of 1,200 students who'd signed up for clas es for the fall attended the building's first day of classes, with many remarking on its clean feel and new, modern look.
The college center's executive dean, Brian Jukes, said the hope is a lot more students will make those discoveries in 2013. Enrollment for the spring semester is ahead of pace compared to last fall, and he said he expects a surge in the final week before classes begin in January, as is typical for community colleges.
As well, spring will see evening classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, and community development classes in such courses as computing on other evenings and weekends, Jukes said.
If there's an area where Jukes said he'd like to do more, it's to make the Sutter County center go beyond just being a place where people take classes and have more of a college feel.
"Many of our students are not attending the Marysville campus," Jukes said, referring to Yuba College's original campus in Linda. "We're trying to provide a hub for their college activities."
Two events last fall, a guitar concert and student game, were the start of the kind of activities of which he would like to do more.
As the new center continues to grow, though, the bond used to build it came under question in 2012.
Community college district trustees said they were appalled in September, when a review by district Chancellor Doug Houston found the $4.6 million bond voters passed in April 2011 would have $54 million in interest payments over its life.
CONTACT Ben van der Meer at bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4786. Find him on Facebook at /ADbvandermeer or on Twitter at @ADbvandermeer.
