Classes Start Feb. 24 at COD’s Mecca-Thermal Campus
College students in the East Valley have an opportunity to not just study history, but to make history as well by enrolling at COD’s new campus.
The College is opening a modular village on the Mecca-Thermal border near Avenue 62 and Buchanan which will launch the brand new site. Students can register now for classes that begin Feb. 24. A Grand Opening event for the community is planned for Feb. 7.
College of the Desert is starting with a series of modular buildings erected for the interim site, located on a corner of the 96 acres that will eventually be the main East Valley Campus. Construction of permanent buildings is still several years away, on a schedule that will be determined by demand at the new site. College officials say the new campus will open for the spring 2009 semester on Feb. 24, offering nine expanded classes that run for 12 weeks. The semester opens four weeks later than at the other COD sites but ends at the same time, in late May.
Students can go to the college website to be among the first to register at the new site: www.collegeofthedesert.edu.
A class schedule for Mecca-Thermal is being mailed to households in the East Valley.
Modular classrooms are already in place and workers are finishing up the landscaping and other details. The site is paved, lighted, and will be fully completed by opening day.
A total of nine classes in English, math, history and psychology will be offered in the first semester. A skills lab will also be available to students on site. In the fall, COD will begin to transition from the current leased site in Indio, which will remain open indefinitely. Classes now offered at the Eastern Valley Center in Indio will ultimately be available only at the Mecca-Thermal campus in a transition process that is expected to take several years.
Voters approved Measure B in 2004, which authorized the sale of general obligation bonds to acquire and build a permanent East Valley site, now the Mecca-Thermal campus. Other bond projects include a future site in the West Valley in Palm Springs and an on-going massive building project at the main campus in Palm Desert.