College Reputation Trashed by Location

“I don’t want to go to Yuba (College) but I have to,” said local high school senior Jason Carter. “If I lived closer to Roseville, I would go to Sierra or something anywhere but Yuba.”

“I’ve lived in Yuba City forever,” Carter continued. “The thought of going to college should be cool, but when the college you have to go to is in Linda, it’s not cool at all.”Many who have never attended Yuba College judge its educational merit on location and appearance.

Professor David Rubiales, an instructor at Yuba College for 36 years agrees that Yuba College’s reputation is blemished because of location. “I think the location hurts. We are on the fringe of town, and the local area here, unfortunately, is a community that needs help in terms of appearance.”

“North Beale Road is somewhat rundown,” continued Rubiales. “There are buildings that are decaying on the road, old houses that are empty, and I think the county could spend valuable resources trying to improve the look of North Beale Road.”

However, a negative perception of Yuba College is not based solely on location. When touring the Linda campus, one cannot help but cringe at the school’s appearance.

Sean Hamby, a Yuba College student, feels something should be done about the buildings at on the Linda campus.

“There are very few places for students to congregate,” said Hamby. “I think Yuba College would attract more students if they gave most of the buildings a facelift and offered more community events, more music and more theatre. There are a lot of things that can be improved.”

Miriam Root, Public Relations Officer for the District, compared the appearance of Yuba College to an old house. “I would say, like any house that was built in the sixties and still has people living in it, sure it’s definitely going to need (to be remodeled)”

Professor Rubiales agreed that the Linda campus is in need of an upgrade. “We do need to improve the looks of the college. There’s no doubt about that. The facilities are getting old, and the administration of the college is committed to trying to improve the college in the next couple of years.”

In a September interview with The Prospector (see “The ‘Wright’ man for a tough job”) Dr. Willard Wright, Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services of Yuba College, said that he would like to see more renovation done on campus.

With the remodeling project for the 800 building underway and plans to update the 1000 and 500 buildings, the issues of modernizing and updating the facilities are being tackled.

Appearance and locations aside, Hamby feels that he has received a high-quality education at Yuba College. “Yuba College has a lot of really dedicated teachers, a lot that have been here for 25 or 30 years. I feel personally that they gave me a good education.”

Hamby also stated that he felt the majority of the professors at Yuba College are undervalued. Their reputation and the quality of the education they provide is not well established in the community. Local high school senior Jason Carter illustrated such sentiment in his comment that Yuba College is not a “real” college. Carter believes his education at Yuba is going to be lacking when he transfers to a four-year university.

Professor Rubiales believes that the staff at Yuba College is not valued as much as they should be. “We have some outstanding people here, and the community unfortunately doesn’t appreciate that, because simply, it’s not that they’re ungrateful, but it’s just that they don’t know.”