Building 100 presentation to Facilities Committee, November 14, 2014, 12-1:000 in 107A/B

Marcia Corcoran, Dean of Language Arts

Pedro Reynoso, Library Coordinator

Norman Buchwald, Librarian

Deonne Kunkel, Learning Connection Coordinator
Marcia – Welcome everyone. First I am going to give a brief history of the project then
Pedro and Norman will present the needs in the library currently not in scope of the project
(this will be the bulk of our presentation), and finally Deonne will give 1-minute update on the progress with the User Group for the Learning Connection.
Building 100 was slated for renovation over about 8 years ago. We as a college had budgeted $10 million, expecting a match from the state. We hired Steinberg architects to design a $20 million renovation. At that time, the state was reviewing this project as well as plans for buildings 1700 and 1800. The state was not able to come up with the match for building 100. And they suggested that since so much of the building was proposed for renovation, ($20 million cost when a new building might be put up for 30 or 40 million, so between 50% or 75% cost of a new building just for a renovation) that the campus might want to choose instead to tear the building down and put up a new building. But we did not have enough funds for that.
However, the state did come up with the match for 1700 and 1800, only the problem was that Chabot had not budgeted for 1700 and 1800. So the Facilities Committee decided to move 6 million out of the Building 100 project into the 1700 and 1800 projects, retaining 4 million for a minor “temporary” upgrade of Building 100, anticipating that we might be able to get a new building if the voters would pass a new bond measure. So the $4 million project was to focus on the ground floor, primarily for the Learning Connection, or the intersection of the tutoring and faculty development programs. The Library had put in its
Program Review for years the need for a new Circulation/Reference desk and the removal of a wall to expand the instructional classroom in order to have enough computer seats for
44 students, a typical class size.
Subsequently, Steinberg worked with the User Group to make a new, less costly light renovation project. This led to discussion of earthquake retrofitting…all of the other buildings on campus with any renovation have been earthquake retrofitted. After polling the constituents, the district did not go out for a new bond, and it became more and more clear that the building would need to serve the campus for possibly another 10 years.
Consequently, we argued to add earthquake retrofitting to the project. Engineers studied the options, and came up with one that did not close out all of the windows downstairs, but

came with a price tag of an additional 3 million. So now the total project cost was $4 million plus $3 million for the retrofitting, totaling $7 million.
Yet as Users work with Steinberg and usage in the Learning Connection and Library is increasing and we receive assessments from students, we can see that the library space is functioning very poorly—the elevator became the next greatest need, followed by improved lighting, technology, wireless, carpet, furniture, electrical needs, clean bathrooms, study spaces.
The district is separately addressing the elevator need (about a $500,000. cost). Our purpose today is to ask Facilities Committee to add $1 million to the project so that we can make the library usable, with the effort to bring it into the 21 st century until we can build a new one. Chabot is a campus with students who may not have access to computers, study spaces, and other resources in their home environments. Since we are going to spend $7.5 million on the project, we feel an additional $1 million would give us a little extra money to work with the architects to address the most pressing needs and we will make it go as far as we can.
The library is the hub of the campus, the center of an academic community, a place for students and faculty from all areas to use and to create new knowledge. Building 100 is an integrative project to bring everyone together. The library’s is committed to teaching and promoting the use of information resources, and we can only support this mission by providing a safe and welcoming environment conducive to learning, collaborating, and encouraging lifelong learning. A refreshed library will motivate students more, make them feel better about themselves and have pride in their learning.