The Roadrunner

For two years Dave Cooper has coordinated Butte College’s Study Abroad Program. Cooper, a graduate of UC Santa Barbara moved to Chico in the late ’80’s to bring his daughter closer to his family here. He started working part-time at Butte as a ceramics instructor and eventually got a job as a full-time teacher with the art department.

On Election Day, Feb. 5, Butte College students had a chance to see their tuitions lowered from $20 to $15 and the state’s community college system could have realized an increase its overall budget. It didn’t happen. Proposition 92 failed to capture the simple majority needed to see these things come true.

Les Jauron, an assistant to the president at Butte-Glenn Community College District, said that lack of education in California coupled with higher inflation has led to a lower per capita income here than the national average.

Students, faculty, staff and visitors who drive to school or enjoy the arts should know the following: Sections of the west parking lots are disappearing. Drivers may have noticed sections of the parking lot were blocked off. DPR Construction Inc. work trailers occupy roughly 24 parking spaces. Fences, caution tape and signs direct the flow of traffic around the trailers. All of this is in preparation for the upcoming construction of the Instructional Arts building. Trailers will be there until May 2009, the length of the Instructional Arts Facilities building project.

When chief of police Mike Efford walked through the door, he wasn't wearing a police uniform, opting instead for casual clothes. Efford is a fairly big man with a firm hand shake and a gray goatee.

Efford said that he has 35 years of police experience, the last five of which as been with Butte College. Efford was also the chief of police for the city of Chico. He said that he would like to get more students involved in keeping the campus a safe place for students to learn. Toward that end, the campus police department has just hired seven new volunteer students.