In 2005, the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District Board of Trustees approved a budget of $500,000 to be spent on aesthetics at Las Positas College.
Eight years later, the Board and LPC have made a joint decision to use a portion of that money to purchase statues from the NIKE committee to be placed in the center of the expanse of grass between buildings 2200 and 2400. To clear up any confusion, this is the NIKE committee that commissioned missiles, not the NIKE committee that makes sport shoes.
It is the position of The Express that the money used for this project is not being spent wisely. While it is understood that the money has to be used to make LPC look aesthetically pleasing, there are much better ways to do so that will actually help students around campus in their various studies while at the same time keeping within the definition of “aesthetics.”
One suggestion includes replacing the crab grass around campus so that students will have more comfortable places to study. Another suggestion would be either repairing the track and field or making it a more student-friendly environment via whatever method, such as more parking.
While this might not fall into the confinements of “aesthetics”, LPC art students would benefit greatly from updated equipment. If this is not possible and purchasing art is the only option, however, a place that could definitely use it would be the display rooms in building 4000, and most certainly not in the middle of a grassy field.
While students will have the opportunity to vote on which statues they would like to have on campus, they as a whole would be greatly benefitted by a different decision made by the Board and LPC, one that includes an actual service to the students.