COD employee reacts to rising tensions between the college and Palm Springs

Tensions are running high between the City of Palm Springs and College of the Desert over the development of a long-awaited West Valley campus.

The city announced its lawsuit against COD on Monday, claiming it failed to release requested public documents about the plans for the campus.

The city is also accusing the school for scaling back its original plans for a 650,000 square foot campus to 142,000 square feet. In a feasibility survey, COD explained the reasoning behind the decrease:

"The information in the study would have been helpful to determine the project scope based on need and affordability. In this case, the feasibility study was conducted concurrent with the capital planning....

The statewide and regional trend of declining enrollment and the sunsetting of the hold
harmless revenue protections in 2024-2025 will make funding the new campus very difficult
unless enrollment increases substantially during the next few years. The increase in enrollment
needs to come from recapturing prior year’s classroom efficiency standards as enrollment
improves."

Instructional Support Assistant for College of the Desert, Carolyn Johnson, says a Palm Springs campus is essential and that West Valley students deserve better access to education. “They don't see any support for them here. They only see, you know, East Valley, or Palm Desert. So they really need a campus here so they can feel like their side of the valley cares for them.”

Johnson is also a former COD graduate who lives in Desert Hot Springs. She told News Channel 3 she's been waiting years to see progress on the West Valley campus. "Then there was all the buzz about the Palm Springs development, Palm Springs campus, whatever they're calling it now. There was all of that buzz about it. Oh, good. We're finally gonna get it. This is what it's gonna look like we saw plans," she explained, "Then nothing. It's like, let's put it on pause."

On Monday, she said her drive time more than doubled getting to the campus due to road closures from the weekend storm. She said if it was difficult for her, it's even worse for students who have a hard time finding transportation. "We're just really cheating all the students in the West Valley by not providing them with some type of education that they can use to better themselves."

In the COD Board of Trustees agenda to be presented this week, it shows that Phase 1 of the West Valley campus will be 142,646 square feet.

You can see slides from this week's planned meeting here:

The City of Palm Springs says they envisioned it to be 650,000 square feet. They say it’s a significant decrease in the original plans.

"When COD is making promises, then breaking promises, they're making promises, they're breaking promises. The students don't want to come here," Johnson said, "And a lot of them have though, why should I waste my time?"

In the agenda presentation for example, you can see that in April of 2021 the hospitality program was significantly reduced from 65,000 square feet to 2,430 square feet this month.

"There is no way you can have all those programs in 2,500 square feet. You cannot have a mock hotel, check in, all of the spaces they say they're gonna have in 2,500 square feet. It doesn't work," Johnson explained.

Before her time at COD, Johnson told me she spent several years in the hospitality industry and thinks it’s a huge mistake to cut it down. "I mean, look how much Coachella brings, Stagecoach brings. All the golf tournaments. Everything that we do revolves around the tourism industry. We need to train those coming up how to serve in those industries," she said.

In a feasibility survey, COD explained "funding the new campus very difficult unless enrollment increases substantially during the next few years."

You can see the feasibility studies for the Palm Springs Development as they are posted to the meeting agenda:

Johnson believes enrollment won’t be a problem, if the correct resources are in place. "They always are saying we need more students. We need more students. Well, if you don't have the facilities for more students, how are you going to get more students."

The College of the Desert Board of Trustees is going to discuss the progress of the West Valley campus this Thursday.

For details on the full lawsuit and COD response, click here.

Stay with News Channel 3 for continuing updates.