The lower level of Fresno City College’s Math, Science, and Engineering Building was closed due to flooding on Jan. 22. Several rooms have been closed for six to eight weeks according to Vice President of Administrative Services Omar Gutierrez.
Lab room S-20 was the most flooded alongside three offices and a server room next to it. Another two classrooms and faculty offices were partially affected by the flood, according to Gutierrez.
Carol Curtis, a math instructor at FCC, said she was fortunate enough that this time her office wasn’t flooded. But one of her classrooms was closed due to flooding.
“It is not the first time we [fellow faculty members] have experienced flooding on the courtyard level of the science building,” Curtis said.
Curtis was originally placed in a classroom that was too small for her class.
Jessica Nijjar, a student in Curtis’s class and a Pre-Allied Health major, said by the next time their class met, they were relocated to a classroom bigger than they needed.
“Before in that small class everything just felt really tight and just like suffocating with not a lot of room to scoot in. Now you have your own little space,” said Nijjar.
Rainwater entered through a pipe and began leaking out into the lower courtyard. This follows a trend of flooding into the lower levels of the MSE building according to Gutierrez.
“We didn’t know that piping was going to be active, so did our contractor. We didn’t see that connection,” Gutierrez said.
Repairs and renovations regarding a damaged wall had already been underway when the rain arrived due to the previous problems with water leaking into rooms of the building.
Gutierrez states that the flood had been contained to a concentrated area before it could become worse.
An email sent out by President Robert Pimintel on the day of the flooding indicated that the affected faculty would work with the Dean of Math, Science and Engineering Shirley McManus to find new offices and classrooms to move in while repairs occurred.
“Thankfully, our division dean, Shirley McManus, was extremely diligent about finding classrooms for all of the classes that had to be relocated,” Curtis said.
Nijjar struggled to find the first classroom they were relocated to since it was back by the tennis courts. Then they moved again, and she attempted to locate her new class for the next eight weeks.
“At the beginning, I was kind of annoyed because we had to move classes several times,” Nijjar said.
Gutierrez concluded that he was generally satisfied with the response to the situation. He felt the staff had a timely response to drain the flooded areas while administrators successfully relocated faculty and their students.
