California College Razes Two Houses
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | Nov. 5, 2009
Pierce College students protest the loss of more farm-related structures at their school.
Credit: Save Pierce Farm
Last month Pierce College in California's San Fernando Valley demolished two houses located on its 426-acre campus.
"They were these really asbestos-ridden, junky houses that were really eyesores. They're not historic buildings," says Doreen Clay, spokeswoman for Pierce College. "We're fortunate to be able to take out things that are really old, worn, tired, and replace them."
Nonetheless, students gathered on Oct. 23 to protest the demolition of the farm caretakers' houses, carrying signs that read, "Save the Farm."
"The protest was designed to let [college officials] know that we're not going to go quietly," says student Jeanne Thompson, who started a "Save Pierce Farm" group on Facebook last month that has 175 members today. "We want people to know what's going on here. More and more of our land is being encroached upon, and more and more of our farm facilities are being taken away."
The wood-and-stucco structures had been on the site for at least three decades but may have dated to the 1940s, according to Bill Lander, agriculture technician, who lived in one of the houses for 27 years until Pierce College asked him and his family to leave by June 1, 2009. "The other house was in real poor shape," Lander says. Video cameras now watch over the farm's cows, horses, goats, and chickens at night.
Founded in 1947 in Woodland Hills, Calif., Pierce College is now surrounded by Valley strip malls but maintains a 225-acre teaching farm. The college's 25-year lease on that land expires soon, prompting fears that the farm will be lost to development.
Pierce College's farm program is not in jeopardy, according to Joy McCaslin, interim college president. "Within our 426 acres, we have preserved half the land as practically the only farmland remaining in the Valley, and we continue to treasure our agriculture and animal science programs," McCaslin said in a statement last week. She adds that the college is restoring another building on campus.
Thompson says her group still fears that the college will continue to demolish vital buildings, such as the sheep house. "While we're being told one thing [by the administration], the farm is being disintegrated in front of our eyes, and we need the farm."
The vacant site will become a temporary construction headquarters and parking lot, according to Clay.
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Comments
Submitted by randinotoo at: November 6, 2009
the houses might have been an eyesore for the college but for the farm animals and students they were a comfort knowing that someone was there to watch over the farm and the farm animals. The interim president says they were asbestos ridden but failed to tell you that the college had just invested $50,000 dollars in remodeling at least on of the houses. New roof, new plumbing, new electrical etc... that was only 3 months ago and now that newly remodeled house is gone. Explain that reasoning?