Delta board votes to save universe

Planetarium's fate now in state's hands
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A show plays in May at Delta College’s Clever Planetarium.MICHAEL McCOLLUM/Record File 2012

San Joaquin Delta College trustees indicated their desire Tuesday night to save a community landmark that has inspired everyone from grade-school children to spectacled old scientists: the Clever Planetarium.

Trustees voted 4-1-1 to move forward with a plan to spend as much as $5 million to preserve the planetarium - one of only a handful in the Central Valley.

It had originally had been slated for demolition in the coming months, along with the neighboring Cunningham complex.

There is still one more hurdle to overcome: Delta needs the blessing of the state, which awarded matching funds for a new math and science building that is nearly complete on the north side of campus, and has insisted Cunningham be demolished.

"But I really do believe the state is going to allow us to keep the planetarium," board President Janet Rivera said.

"I'm in the community, and I see the benefits from it," she said. "I see the students that go there. To me, it's a good investment in a young person's education. You never know what kind of science interest that might spark."

Tuesday's decision is not without controversy. The $5 million to save the planetarium will have to come out of some other voter-approved bond project - perhaps the plan to build a college center in north San Joaquin County.

That concerns the city of Lodi, representatives of which have appeared before trustees repeatedly and begged for a campus there.

This time, it was City Councilman Larry Hansen.

"I'm asking you please, as you make this important decision on how to allocate the funds and how to spend them, and you're looking at what little contingency is left, please remember the commitments that have been made. ... Please do not do anything that lessens the possibility of a campus in Lodi," he told trustees Tuesday.

"Commitments have been made, and they need to be upheld," Hansen added.

Trustees Mary Ann Cox and Taj Khan questioned whether it would really be necessary to spend $5 million to save a building that already exists. Khan ultimately voted no, and Cox abstained.

While the planetarium is not part of Cunningham, it is connected through that building to essential infrastructure. Major work is needed for the planetarium to stand on its own, Delta officials said.

That's where the $5 million cost comes in, they said, adding that they hope the project will be cheaper.

The 39-year-old planetarium isn't solely for astronomy students. It's been used by other campus instructors and by community groups, including untold numbers of schoolchildren who have gone on field trips there.

The $5 million also would allow for two adjacent classrooms to be spared - valuable instructional space, officials said.

"We're going to spend the least amount of money possible to save the most amount of space possible," said Michael Kerns, Delta's vice president for student services.

Delta had previously planned to build an entirely new planetarium, but that project as proposed would cost $10 million and rely in part on state funding - making it unlikely to happen in the near future.

Trevor Atkinson, a member of the Stockton Astronomical Society, said he was pleased to hear about the trustees' decision to save the planetarium.

"It's a community resource," he said. "It's one of those things that opens kids' minds to the sciences, something that grasps their imaginations. Anything that gets a kid interested in science of any form is all to the good."


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