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Subject: Status of Recovery Efforts at CSUN
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 94 09:47:25 -0800
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STATUS OF EARTHQUAKE RECOVERY EFFORTS AT CALIFORNIA STATE
UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
California State University, Northridge, with its approximately 25,000
students is the fourth largest in the twenty-campus California State
University system. The campus consists of over 100 buildings, 53 of which
are major facilities, spread out over 353 acres in the heart of the San
Fernando Valley, a suburb of the City of Los Angeles, containing 1.2
million of the City's 3 million population.
CSUN is the only four-year public institution of higher education in the
San Fernando Valley and is a primary employer in the area with its nearly
4000 faculty and staff. The campus was founded in 1958 and serves as an
intellectual, cultural, and educational resource not only for the San
Fernando Valley, but the surrounding Santa Clarita, Simi, and Conejo
Valleys. The majority of our students come from the region's elementary,
junior and senior high schools; they live and work here; their roots and
history are intertwined with the rapid growth of the Valley and with the
University. These are students, faculty, and staff who cannot easily pick
up life and career elsewhere.
The 6.6 earthquake which struck Northridge in the early morning hours of
January 17 disrupted life in the area and at the University in profound
ways. No major public university in the nation has ever experienced the
extensive damage and disruption wreaked upon CSUN in just 40 seconds. All
buildings have been affected to some degree; all major buildings have been
significantly damaged; none are being occupied for classroom or teaching
purposes at this time.
o Despite the enormity of problems, the University is committed to
rebuilding a program for the Spring semester, which we plan to begin on
February 14-a scant two weeks later than normal. To achieve this goal,
- - -the University has rented 300 single-story temporary structures at a cost
in excess of $5.5 million for a period of 6 months. These temporary
buildings will be placed around the campus and serve as interim
classrooms, faculty offices, and meeting spaces.
- - -class schedules have been redesigned to provide continuous instruction 7
a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and extended use on Saturdays, in order to
accommodate the limited supply of classrooms and accommodate student need.
- - -faculty have created innovative new courses that adapt to the constraints
caused by the earthquake. Engineering students for example will be working
on real projects in the community relating to earthquake-related problems.
- - -the University has accelerated its plan for creating a one-stop student
success center, which will combine student advisement, career counseling
and financial aid together in one location.
- - -the University is investigating incentives to encourage telecommunicating,
rideshare, and Metrolink public transportation usage, as well as staggered
work hours for staff employees in order to alleviate traffic congestion.
o The University has incurred substantial costs in preparing the campus
for reopening. To date, the University has:
- - -expended $1,500,000 for emergency telephone service to the temporary
buildings; $3,000,000 in short-term instructional equipment rentals; and
$1,000,000 to equip student labs with 400 computer stations. (Until access
to buildings is permitted, it is not known how many of the University's
5200 pre-earthquake computer stations survived.)
- - -expended $22,000 per day in asbestos clean-up campus-wide, including the
entire Engineering Complex; and $25,000 per day in hazardous chemical
clean-up, primarily in the 4 science buildings;
- - -expended $3 - $5,000,000 in professional structural engineering
evaluations of all campus structures; $50,000 for testing campus
electrical systems and underground trunk lines; and $500,000 in emergency
supplies (gloves, flashlights, hard-hats, tents; plastic sheeting for roofs);
- - -expended $840,000 in demolition costs of Oviatt Library (falling roof),
Sierra Tower (remove collapsing stairwell), and other heavy debris
clean-up in 5 additional major buildings.
o The impact on records, academic and non-academic, has been awesome:
- - -All of the University's communication systems have been disrupted: phone
service is skeletal; data systems such as "E" mail, internet and other
local networks are not operational at the present time. Mail services has
been re-established, but the backlog is immense.
- - -Student loans and financial aid checks exceeding $7 million are stored in
a safe in a building which is currently inaccessible;
- - -Touchtone registration, in process when the earthquake struck, was
disrupted. At great risk to life and limb, CSUN employees climbed through
a fourth floor window in the South Library which houses the Univerity's
computer operations and mainframe to rescue computer back-up tapes. These
tapes were subsequently transported to our sister campus in Fresno, thus
enabling the registration process to continue.
- - -Production of academic transcripts needed for job and graduate school
applications was also interrupted: No official transcripts have been
issued since January 14. Due to the heroic efforts of the aforementioned
employees, transcript production will resume next week.
- - -All student files located in Admissions and Records will need to be
reassembled once access to the severely damaged Administration building is
permitted.
- - -Business and personnel records located in the Administration building are
inaccessible. Until the building can be entered, all business and
personnel operations have been postponed. The evaluation process for
employees has been postponed; recruitment which was underway for faculty
and staff for the Spring semester has been delayed. In addition, the
employment verification process has been interrupted.
o The impact on academic programs has been equally severe and wide-ranging:
- - -The Oviatt Library is inaccessible and not operational. The University
hopes to reopen the facility on a limited basis in March. In the meantime,
the University is pursuing interlibrary loan capability with UCLA and
sister CSU institutions, and is also exploring establishing a shuttle
service for students and faculty to nearby institutions.
- - -Course materials have been lost or are inaccessible. To assist our
faculty, sister institutions across the country have been requested by our
sister campus in San Diego to send books and materials.
- - -The impact on intellectual activity of our faculty has been profound.
Valuable research in process has been severely disrupted. In some cases,
data which have been accumulated over many years have been lost and will
have to be recreated. Chemical experiments in process were destroyed in
the Science facility fires which erupted as a result of the quake.
The University faces an awesome task in its effort--in the short term to
mount a viable instructional program which will enable students to
continue progress toward their degrees, and in the long term to rebuild
the campus. We have been greatly assisted in a variety of ways:
The CSU Chancellor's Office has made a commitment to revitalize the campus
as quickly and effectively as possible by relaxing deadlines, policies and
procedures in order to expedite reopening of the campus. It also assembled
a FEMA team to assist the University in working efficiently with FEMA.
Seventeen CSU campuses sent police officers to assist with securing the
interior and perimeters of the campus. Other campuses provided custodians,
groundworkers, laborers, electricians, haz mat and filming crews, and
administrative staff. Campuses have also provided their facilities for a
variety of purposes ranging from touchtone registration to temporary
housing for laboratory animals. Two campuses are also sending small
modular buildings.
In addition, other local institutions within the University of California
and the California Community Colleges systems have contributed to the Cal
State Northridge recovery effort.
Help has been received from both the California Conservation Corps which
continues to provide 24-hour perimeter security for the campus, and the
Orange County Search and Rescue team, whose members arrived very early on
the scene with a horse patrol, medical team, generators, tents, and who
helped clear away heavy debris so that movement about the campus could be
made more safely.
We are truly grateful for the assistance we have been provided, without
which the institution could not have contemplated reopening even a limited
program in such a short period of time. Much remains to be done in order
to achieve total recovery. The total financial impact to rebuild
California State University, Northridge will not be known until
aftershocks have abated and buildings have stabilized to the point where
re-entry and assessment can take place.
The Northridge Quake has already been described as the costliest natural
disaster in the nation's history. Based on expenditures to date and on
data we have been able to accumulate thus far, rough estimates to rebuild
the University have reached $300 million, making it surely the costliest
disaster to a major public higher educational institution in the country.
Total recovery will depend on the joint commitment of local, state, and
federal resources. California State University, Northridge is grateful for
and urges support of Congressional efforts to assist in the recovery process.
- - --President Blenda J. Wilson
California State University, Northridge
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