Sean Belk
Staff Writer
Students taking classes at Long Beach City College’s (LBCC) Pacific Coast Campus (PCC) this spring semester, which starts Feb. 9, will be greeted with energy-efficient lighting, environmentally-friendly landscaping and state-of-the-art classrooms with “smart” technologies and one computer lab at two newly renovated buildings.
During a grand-opening ceremony on Tuesday, Jan. 27, LBCC officials lauded the modernized, Art Deco-style buildings that were completed at the PCC campus, located off of Pacific Coast Highway, between Walnut and Orange avenues, just in time for the new semester.
The $11.3-million renovations to buildings AA and BB are the latest modernizations funded through Measure E bonds worth $616-million that were passed by voters in 2002 and 2008. The bonds have already paid for numerous new facilities and renovations at PCC and LBCC’s Liberal Arts Campus (LAC).
Before a crowd of about 50 people, including LBCC faculty, administrators, board members and city councilmembers, LBCC Superintendent-President Eloy Ortiz Oakley said the improvements to the PCC campus bring new learning opportunities to the nearby community and the whole city.
“These are not just buildings,” he said. “It’s what’s inside the building[s] that we’re here to celebrate and the opportunities that will be created inside these buildings ! We’re here to celebrate the opportunity for learning for this community [and] for the entire community of Long Beach.”
Oakley said the college made an effort to preserve the buildings’ Art Deco-style architecture while modernizing the classroom facilities with the latest technology. He noted that the buildings were originally built after the 1933 Long Beach earthquake and converted from a junior high school. College officials said in a statement that the renovation project is the first major overhaul to the buildings in 35 years.
Long Beach Community College District Board of Trustees President Jeffrey Kellogg, who has served on the board since the first bond measure passed in 2002, thanked taxpayers for funding the ongoing makeover to the PCC campus with a new fitness center and a new student-service building currently under construction.
“It’s a pretty exciting time to be here at the PCC campus,” he said. “I look around, and I see an incredible transformation of this campus! Long Beach City College is providing safe, ADA-compliant, energy-efficient facilities for our students.”
LBCC Dean of Language Arts and Communications Jennifer Rodden announced that the college’s entire English as a second language (ESL) department would be moving into the AA building along with fulltime language-arts and communications faculty. Another subject that may be taught at the new buildings is cyber security, according to college officials.
She said faculty have already noted that the state-of-the-art facilities will enable students to “keep pace with the latest technologies” and allow them to better interact with teachers and advisors by having faculty offices so close to the classrooms.
Jonathan Andrew, 23, who is studying linguistics and recently transferred to LBCC from another college, said he looks forward to taking advantage of the new facilities at PCC once the semester begins, adding that he foresees there will be “a lot of open classes” compared to other colleges.
According to a statement from LBCC, the improvements to AA and BB buildings include: 15 general-education “smart” classrooms with computer and audiovisual equipment; four computer classrooms and one computer lab with the latest audio-visual technologies; “Smart Board” technology to allow faculty members and students to interact with applications, websites and videos; full seismic structural upgrades to meet or exceed current codes; environmentally friendly “smart lighting” systems; new staff lounge, restrooms, faculty office suite and administration office suite; a centralized Academic Learning Center; five new conference rooms; and a central mailroom.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the press conference, Oakley’s speech was briefly interrupted as Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) “special services officers” assigned to the PCC campus alerted the crowd of an attempted burglary.
According to LBPD spokesperson Nancy Pratt, one of the campus officers was advised by a staff member that two black male suspects were observed running out of a building, one of them carrying a flat-screen TV.
The staff member ran after the subjects yelling for them to stop, which prompted the suspect with the TV to drop it and continue running. The TV, which was taken from a room within a building that is open to students during business hours, was recovered, however college officials noted that the TV was damaged.
It is unknown if the suspects were students, and both suspects remain outstanding, according to LBPD. The investigation is ongoing.
Anyone with information should contact the LBPD’s burglary detail at (562) 570-7351. Anonymous tips may be submitted by calling (800) 222-TIPS (8477), texting TIPLA plus the tip to CRIMES (274637) or visiting lacrimestoppers.org . 
Long Beach City College (LBCC) Superintendent-President Eloy Ortiz Oakley gives a speech during the grand opening of the college’s newly modernized, Art Deco-style buildings AA and BB at LBCC’s Pacific Coast Campus on Tuesday, Jan. 27.
