Classes were moved from two buildings to vacant classrooms around campus during the last two weeks of the fall semester after at least two professors reported feeling ill.
A total of 23 classes in the D building and English Village were moved for the whole spring semester, according to English Department Chair Wendy Smith.
“In preparation for some maintenance work scheduled during the break, several English classes were relocated to alternate locations on campus,” information officer Anabel Pulido said in a statement sent to The Mesa Press.
At least two professors reported feeling sick before the school moved their classes and the rest of the building.
At least one professor reported similar issues to the B building, although no classes were moved from there.
According to Smith, the district tested for asbestos in the D building three times but never released its findings.
Smith frequently told other English professors to inspect their classrooms for any issues and report it back to her or school administration. However, it often took multiple requests for anything to be done by the school.
The English Village consists of multiple mobile classrooms near the main parking lot and does not have necessary equipment like bathrooms. The village was the result of complaints from the English Department that they do not have their own building. Some English professors feel that the English Department, while an integral part of the school and a subject that each student is required to take, does not get the same treatment as other departments do.
“We have all these new classrooms on campus that are really nice and we have students coming to college and they’re expecting a decent classroom, you know, at least as good as what they had in high school. And it’s a room with strange HVAC, non-working technology, stuff falling from the ceiling in a 1964 room, curtains that are falling down. It’s a little depressing,” Smith said.
The English department hopes that some of the money from the San Diego Community College District’s bond that was approved in November’s election will be used to upgrade the buildings if they don’t create a designated building for the English Department.
There were no official complaints filed against the school, according to the San Diego County court website.
The Mesa Press editor-in-chief Bernell Bello, multimedia editor Dominic George, news editor Mia Jabbour, and opinions editor Samuel Wojtowicz contributed to this article.
