More time with instructor will lead to better students

San Jose City College is getting a new campus in Milpitas and it makes no sense. Why build new classrooms when there are several not in use in the main campus?

According to the academic senate minutes of May 19, the extended campus is scheduled to be ready for Fall 2016 which will include seven lecture rooms, a biology lab, a tech lab and an administration building.

SJCC will share the campus with 40 percent of the time with a high school during the daytime.

It is hard to understand why the district is looking to expand a campus when there are several departments that do not have a full-time instructor limiting the face-to-face interaction between instructor and student at its Moorpark location, which is a major advantage community college students have over four-year university students.

Yes, budgets are set for specific projects or departments, but what is hard to understand is why the district cannot figure out a way to obtain or designate money to hire qualified full-time professors that will help prepare students transfer to a four-year university.

The money being spent on the expansion project can be more beneficial to students if classes were offered throughout the day or hiring more full-time instructors that will be more available to students who need the extra time with the instructor.

It seems at times we lose track of the purpose of educational institutions; to help students achieve, to fulfill their potential in a higher education setting that will enable them to succeed in their careers.

Are we over thinking this issue or are we not thinking about it enough?

The equation seems simple: build a campus, fill it with capable instructors and eager students.

New, yet empty classrooms do not benefit anyone. It is more important to have instructors who can focus on teaching and spend their time on campus instead of worrying about juggling a schedule in which they have had to teach at three different schools in order to make a living wage.

Students and administrators should not care about having the largest or most technologically advanced campus because it means absolutely nothing if you do not have enough qualified instructors to guide the students in the right path.