College of the Desert hosts annual State of the College address; update on campus expansion projects
College of the Desert focused on sharing its future growth across its campuses in its annual State of the College address, "COD Rising," Wednesday.
Superintendent/President Martha Garcia, Ed.D., shared details about some of the College’s upcoming projects, including the Palm Springs Development Project, Roadrunner Motors in Cathedral City, and the Indio campus expansion.
"In regards to expansion, these projects take time," said Garcia. "We will create the projects that were committed to be created and afford additional educational access to the students living in those communities."
The projects include the Palm Springs campus, the Roadrunner Motors facility in Cathedral City, and the Indio Campus expansion and Child Development Center.
"It is important that we are responsible as we plan accordingly, as we spend the dollars that this community entrusted us with," said Garcia.
COD announced these are the latest completion dates for the projects:
- The Indio Child Development center will be done by the Summer of 2023
- The Indio Campus expansion will be completed by the Summer of 2024
- Roadrunner Motors facility will be complete by Spring 2026
- The Palm Springs Campus will be complete by late 2026
You can find the detailed outline and timeline on COD's expansion projects at: https://codbond.wpengine.com/
"We want to make sure that we're able to provide the necessary job training and education to all of our students, all of our community folks here in the Coachella Valley, eastern, western, everywhere," said COD board trustee for District 4, Aurora Wilson.
Wilson said the college is also still working to recover from pandemic lows.
"The pandemic has changed us. And so how do we take these lessons learned and move forward?" said Wilson.
Some of the achievements the College highlighted at the event include:
- Enrollment has increased by more than 1,000 students within the last year after a drop during the pandemic
- COD made a partnership with California Indian Nations College to help increase indigenous students' access to higher education
- COD was the second in the state for the number of associate degrees for transfer that were earned among full-time students
- COD was among the top 12 community colleges out of 116 colleges, with at least 65% of Latinx students earning an Associates Degree for transfer while improving their academic performance
