Chancellor recommends merging two East Bay colleges to become Oakland City College
Changes could be coming for students at Laney and Merritt colleges.
The Peralta Community College District Chancellor announced she will be recommending a merger to the board of trustees, "reunifying" the school to become Oakland City College.
"Admittedly, it wasn't a huge surprise," said student Desmond Meagley.
Meagley has been part of the Peralta Community College District for about a decade, taking different classes throughout the district, which includes the two schools in Oakland, Laney and Merritt, as well as one in Berkeley and one in Alameda.
Over the last two years, Meagley has been a student at Laney, and the editor-in-chief of "The Citizen," the student-run newspaper covering the district changes and issues.
"There's been an ongoing budget crisis at Peralta," said Meagley.
At a recent district professional development day, Chancellor Tameil Gilkerson gave updates on the district, including announcing she will recommend a merger to the Board of Trustees. Meagley believes it could result in the financial help that the district needs.
"I believe the plan, the intention is to create a larger college out of two smaller colleges that will hopefully help our district get more funding because we've had a lot of cuts across various departments, to a lot of programs, to a lot of personal, and that's had a big impact on the students," Meadley explained.
He thinks the merger could bring stability.
"Part of that announcement also came with the announcement that there will be no more cuts for the next two years," said Meagley. "So that's going to have a huge impact on the students here."
Ivan Saravia is about to start his fifth semester at Laney. He was at the meeting where the chancellor made the announcement, but he doesn't know how to feel about it yet.
"Personally, I think time will tell," said Saravia. "You can't really see too far in the future."
The chancellor says that neither campus will close as a result of the merger, it would just be one school like it was before 1964, when they split off. It still needs to be presented to and approved by the board, so it will take some time.
Saravia plans to transfer to a four-year school after the spring, so he'll likely miss the transition.
"I've developed a very deep passion for everything that goes on in this district, and writing for he publication as well," said Saravia about his time on campus and writing for the paper, 'The Citizen.' I'll be a little bit sad."
Meagley says if the merger is approved, he hopes it will positively influence both staff and students so that instead of focusing on the budget, they can focus on fun things like what the new mascot will be.
"I'm a big fan of the night heron," said Meagley. "Oakland's bird would be a lovely mascot. It's such a quirky, interesting little guy."
