Monterey Peninsula College is going all in on Marina. Chrissa Olson here, thinking about what it means to put your money where your mouth is. And it certainly seems like Monterey Peninsula College leadership isn't kidding around when it says it wants a significant Marina expansion, reallocating funds this year to put its investment in the Marina campus over the $100 million mark.
The budget for the Marina campus will jump from $78 million to $100 million, as approved by the Board of Trustees on Oct. 28.
Yuri Anderson, the MPC trustee representing Marina, has been pushing for more funding to be allocated toward a Marina expansion.
A Marina expansion made sense to Anderson—students often travel through Marina from Castroville, Watsonville and Salinas. In addition, 45 percent of MPC students live closer to Marina than they do Monterey, according to a report to the Board of Trustees.
“I’m excited about making that space not just an afterthought, but an actual full, supportive campus for students,” Monterey Peninsula College President Marshall T. Fulbright says.
The expansion would also include new buildings and a track, and its Allied Health, nursing, hospitality and culinary programs will completely move to the Marina campus, Fulbright says.
The reshuffling of funds primarily came from putting the entire budget for the law enforcement training program ($25 million) into the Marina expansion, where the college plans to host the program.
The money is coming from Measure V, a $230 million local facilities bond measure for MPC, which was passed by voters in 2020. According to Anderson, the school also still had bonds from Measure I, passed in 2002 for the public safety training program.
She recalled inviting Fulbright for a tour of Marina as part of her monthly meetings with him.
For a couple of hours, she drove him around the area, pointing out schools, housing expansion areas, the stores where residents got their groceries and derelict infrastructure.
“I think he was glad to get out when I dropped him off,” Anderson laughed. "His eyes were huge, seeing the opportunity there was for MPC to serve our full district.”
The capacity of the Marina campus will hopefully double over the next five years, Fulbright says, and programs will either split time with the campus or move there entirely.
Beyond just expanding the college, Anderson hopes it'll bring improvements to the communities in Marina, who could use the track, and whose high school students could use the science labs they plan to build.
Alright, enough talk about college. It's Friday, and school's out.