Massive construction has been continuing in Bellevue College as construction workers continue to build Bellevue College’s $35 million Student Success Center.
The Student Success Center is a 72,000 square foot structure that is taking time, recourses and a lot of money to construct. What will take place in this massive building? According to Interim Director Gilbert Villalpando, “It’s pretty much a lot of what’s in this building and then a few different things outside of this building.” The building Villalpando was referring to is the current student affairs building.
When asked about what will be happening to the current student affairs building, Villalpando admitted there are no current plans for the future of the building.
The construction of the Student Success Center has been a hassle, especially for Bellevue College students that drive a car to get to class. The construction has closed two major parking lots, as well as changing two student parking lots to staff parking lots, in order to accommodate for the construction.
The resources, time and money used to build an entirely new expensive building could be better used on many other aspects of Bellevue College.
Rather than completely re-building a building whose resources are already readily available through other means, the money used here could be put toward renovations of currently standing buildings, improving the Bellevue College website (especially considering the large population of online Bellevue College students), hiring more staff or even raising average pay for Bellevue College staff.
Frankly, building an entirely new building whose resources already available at Bellevue College is a huge waste of not just money, but also time and effort, which could all be put to other issues Bellevue College is facing. The current buildings at Bellevue College are not in dire need of renovation, but neither is the current student affairs building, so using a much smaller amount of money on renovating the current student affairs building is a much smarter choice financially.
The current Bellevue College website is in need of renovations as well, it can be fairly unintuitive and confusing to navigate, especially for newer students. Signing up for classes can be a confusing and stressful process, and it could be massively improved. The $35 million that has been used to building the Student Success Center could also go to adding more classes, or more online options.
Hiring new staff is an actual issue Bellevue College seems to face currently. When going to the student affairs building and scheduling an appointment with a counselor, it can take around a week before a student would actually end up meeting with their counselor. This problem could be solved just by hiring a few new counselors, and would eliminate so many problems facing Bellevue College students.
Bellevue College executives’ priorities are clearly in the wrong place if this building is what they are choosing to prioritize over the general improvement of Bellevue College.