Recent rainstorms in southern California have caused severe water damage to the H200 building of the San Diego Mesa College campus. Students, professors, and administration are being adversely affected by this event through an unfortunate excess of work and stress.

In addition to construction along Mesa College Drive and within the campus, the H200 building is just one more thing to check off the ‘re-do’ list this semester.

Not only were classes relocated to the Z building on the east side of campus (a map and class schedule can be found on the San Diego Mesa Campus website), every faculty workspace and professor office was moved out of the H200 building. All computers, desks, furniture and equipment had to be evacuated before water damage could cause any more costly repairs for the district. Movers began right away after the storms and continued working into the first week of school.

On Jan. 22, San Diego Mesa College President Rita Cepeda conducted a walk-through to assess damages caused by the storm. She concluded that the H200 building will be unusable this spring semester, but luckily, every classroom and person misplaced by the rains was able to be relocated somewhere else within campus.

The “Prop S and N Spring 2010 Update Newsletter,” in agreement with President Cepeda, affirmed that the flooding has put the H200 building out of commission for the entire semester.

Although for students the move was not as drastic. Starting the semester in one room and then moving to another could have been a more bothersome process.

“I don’t really care where the class is as long as they are able keep the schedule the same,” said Janet Potenza, a San Diego Mesa College math student affected by the flooding. “It would have been a problem if they cancelled my math class; walking a few extra minutes to the Z building is not a big deal.”

According to the Vice President for Instruction’s office, reconstruction on the H200 building may not even be in the plans for this semester because of pre-existing plans to create completely new structures in the near future. Although, they could not comment where in the master plans this is located or when it may happen.

The mathematics department, which was hit the hardest by the flooding, has moved entirely to Z-304. If students are looking for professors and faculty formerly located in the H200 building, they can be reached through the Math Department.

The DSPS office also had to be moved but is now up and running again in the H400 building. Although, at the end of the month the office will move one final time to the EOPS office in the I-300 building to stay for the rest of the semester.

“The transition has been smooth thus far, luckily we only had to be closed for a few days at the beginning of the semester,” said Janet Harris, the DSPS front office supervisor.

All services through DSPS are still available; test proctoring is located in K-210A now.

The Tutoring Center, which also had to be relocated, is now in I-207.