The North Orange County Community College District will soon see Measure J on their ballots.
The bond, Fullerton/Cypress Colleges Repair and Student/Veteran Job Training Measure, would grant $574 million for repairs at both Fullerton and Cypress College along with School of Continuing Education. It would also include facility improvements and upgrades.
Measure J will seek to fix old science and technology buildings by modernizing them to better equip students, upgrade facilities for veterans, construct more and efficient parking space and increase access to the campus for disabled students.
The goal of the measure is to provide FC with more courses in emerging fields and update facilities and the technology within it, in order to better provide students with modern necessary skills for the competitive job market. The bill would also provide students with college credits, certifications and job skills at a reasonable price so they may avoid being in debt as a result of education according to suppportourcolleges.com.
All of the things that are listed in the measure are beneficial to Fullerton College’s next hundred years according to Lisa McPheron, director of campus communications at FC.
“This will create funding that we currently don’t have, it would renovate the buildings, help to fix Wi-Fi and not just to download something quick on your phone, “McPheron said. “It creates an access for the students that are disabled that are taking distance learning on campus.”
In addition the bill would support the Veterans Resource Center by creating a better facility as it is currently a converted office and classroom according to McPheron.
Veterans such as Esmeralda Martin, secretary at the VRC, are supportive of the measure and are excited to see upgrades and improvement in the center if the bill does pass.
“We discussed the measure during our meeting and overall we think it’s a great thing,” Martin said. “The money will help improve many things here [VRC] and I personally have endorsed it; now we are working on getting it endorsed by other veterans.”
In addition to upgrades on the facility the bill would aim to improve services offered to veterans such as; counseling, support groups, advising, individual study and computer access. One of the goals of the measure is to ensure veterans are supported in completing their education and entering the civilian workforce according to supportourcolleges.com
Proponents of the measure believe that it would be a tax increase worth more than half a billion dollars and fear that the NOCCCD would pull a bait and switch and not complete what they propose according to the voter ballot information.
Most students are unaware of Measure J and what it may offer them and the campus. However, support seems to be rallying from faculty and students like Joshua Lopez, television and film major, whom believes the measure to be a beneficial idea.
“It sounds like something I would definitely vote for,” Lopez said. “As long as it’s helping fix the school, because this school really does need it.”
With a rapid approaching election day on Nov. 4, those unaware of the measure should seek to educate themselves as Measure J would need a 55 percent approval by voters.