Cypress College Board of Trustees adopts ten-year comprehensive master plan

This article by Cypress College Public Information Officer Marc S. Posner was originally published in @Cypress online (PDF), the college’s online newspaper.

The Board adopted the proposed 2011 Comprehensive Master Plan at their January 24, 2012 meeting. Trustees also directed that it be placed on the District’s website, making it accessible to students, faculty, staff, and the
public.

“[A] significant athletic field reconfiguration is necessary…”
— 2011 Comprehensive Master Plan for Cypress College

At Opening Day, Cypress College’s vice presidents — Bob Simpson and Karen Cant — provided an overview of the plan, which provides a broad vision for the entire North Orange County Community College District for the next 10 years.

The Comprehensive Master Plan covers both educational and physical infrastructure components.

Dr. Simpson highlighted elements of the plan’s educational component by looking at the Astronomy Program, the Hotel, Restaurant and Culinary Arts Program, and the Physical Education Division.

Each had unique elements. For instance, in highlighting HRC, Dr. Simpson noted changes made to the plan from draft form to the final version because of input from the Career Technical Division based on an initial job-market analysis that failed to match the
actual results generated by the program.

The facilities portion of the plan includes an analysis of existing conditions, including: the regional/local community context; building occupancy; history; vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian circulation; parking; emergency access; zoning; and landscaping.

Covering this portion of the plan, Cant shared the planning principles, projects, recommendations, recommended site improvements, and future thinking.

Looking at a potential reconfiguration of the athletic fields, she noted the ties between the plan’s proposal and the needs articulated in the plan’s educational component.

“…a significant athletic field reconfiguration is necessary,” the report says.“The program cannot currently provide adequately for spectator seating and security of the athletic events without appropriately addressing entrance and egress. Consolidation and reconfiguring athletic fields would significantly address these issues.”

Likewise, the plan’s suggestion of a planetarium is not only a facility decision, but one driven by faculty input.

“Faculty indicates a need for an astronomy observation platform as well as a planetarium,” the plan says. “Such a facility would address a critical instructional need as well as providing the potential for becoming a major community attraction and a center for astronomy in Orange County.”

Vital to understanding the Educational Master Plan’s purpose is recognizing what it isn’t intended to provide.

“The Master Plan is the District’s long-term plan, which is to be used as a resource for making decisions,” Dr. Kasler said at Opening Day. “It’s not a decision-making manual. It’s not designed to be prescriptive. The Strategic Plans we develop over this period of time will be our ‘how to’ navigation documents.”