The Elk Grove Center opened Building B on Jan. 1 to keep up with the increased demand for science courses at Cosumnes River College, said Dean of Facilities and Operations Christopher Raines.
Raines said the waitlists for courses, such as biology and chemistry, have been consistently overflowing. Building B has 3,000 square feet of classroom space, 7,200 square feet of lab space and 2,600 square feet of student interaction space, according to the CRC website.
“Before COVID and after COVID, we are still turning students away from the lab type of classes you need for your various degrees that you’re looking for,” Raines said. “And to make it easier for the students further down south, you can get the same classes, same instructors, same curriculum and not have to come to the main campus.”
Raines said Building B is phase two of a three-phase process and cost nearly $20 million. Building A was established 10 years ago to provide administrative services in addition to limited instruction. Phase two was the addition of the science building and phase three will include the addition of another building in approximately 10 years.
“It’s modern. There’s something to be said about a classroom that was built in 2022 versus one that was built in 1985,” Raines said. “It has some amenities that the older classrooms just don’t have because they’re old.”
Raines said the campus has constructed a new building nearly every decade since its opening in the 1970s, including the EGC since its opening in 2014. He said the student enrollment at the EGC is similar to the main campus, seeing a 60/40 split of online and in-person classes.
Twenty-five-year-old pre-health occupation major Phuong Ngyuen said she is in her first semester at CRC and takes a chemistry class in Building B.
“I like the areas to work in and the class is very big,” Ngyuen said.
Biology Professor Kimberly Fouad said she has been teaching at CRC since 2019 and has seen the expansion of the department’s instructors from two to five. She said she expects more instructors to be hired, accommodating the demand for science classes on campus.
“So, in anatomy we use a lot of models, anatomical models, plastic replicas of bones, organs, even the tissue samples, they’re all new,” said Fouad, who teaches anatomy and physiology.
Educational Center Supervisor Tiffany Clark said the new laboratory spaces will draw students in. She said an action space has been created to ensure an interactive space for students and faculty to engage with each other. The action spaces are work areas with computers, whiteboards, tables and other resources to be successful.
“We really wanted to make a space where students feel like this is where they want to be,” Clark said.
Clark said the building is a useful environment to study or do group projects, even if a student isn’t taking a class at the EGC. The EGC’s Learning Resource Center will be moved from Building A to Building B.
The Sacramento Regional Transit Blue Line light rail will be extended to have a station directly outside Building B, Clark said.
“The difference is incredible,” Clark said. “It felt like we were just on an island and there was nothing else around us and now it has just exploded.”
Fouad said she appreciates the modern construction of the building with its large glass windows, allowing for a transparent learning experience.
“Students at the Elk Grove Center are not lacking in terms of not having enough materials or not doing what the main campus is doing,” Fouad said.
The EGC will hold a ribbon-cutting on May 1 for Building B’s dedication ceremony at 1:30 p.m.