10/2 – Special to the Desert Sun – Ron Oden: ‘Our dreams will be realized with COD’s West Valley plans’ (subscribers only)
To summarize, Ron Oden has pledged to be a watch dog as a COD trustee and a member of our shared desert community, for our upcoming West Valley campus projects.
Excerted from Ron Oden:
If you take away a young person’s education, you take away an important asset that will shape their future – an asset they cannot get back.
Too often, College of the Desert students struggle to get the classes they need to complete their education.
Too often, because of course availability, it takes COD students four years to earn their two-year degree.
Too often, COD students are discouraged and drop out.
No campuses = no degrees.
That is a tragedy.
The Palm Springs campus site is a perfect location for providing opportunities for Coachella Valley students – one of the leading reasons the campus has enormous community support. The Palm Springs campus benefits include:
- Adjacent to Palm Springs High School.
- Near the Police Station for public safety training.
- Students pursuing nursing and health care careers will benefit from the campus’ proximity to Desert Regional Medical Center.
- The architecture program with Cal Poly will support students seeking careers in architecture and design.
- Palm Springs Airport has hands-on training opportunities for commercial and private aircraft maintenance.
- Near the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership Innovation Hub.
- Countless hospitality industry businesses for students seeking management careers in the tourism and hospitality.
- Improved transportation to and from COD will benefit neighboring communities.
The Palm Springs and Cathedral campuses will not duplicate the setting of the primary Palm Desert campus – they will complement the traditional and innovative technologies combined with in-person learning experiences these college centers creatively provide.
We at COD are responsible for upholding our commitment to Coachella Valley taxpayers, voters and students. We must build what was pledged when the voters funded COD campus plans and we need to honor our oath.
In the coming weeks I look forward to sharing with the entire Coachella Valley community new designs as well as construction and completion schedules for our exciting new campuses.
Full article here: