Page 25 - coc-40thanniversary

(now called Bonelli Hall), as well as the
occupied the San Joaquin Valley for some 7,000 years. Some of the 89 stu- Classroom Center (Seco Hall), Laboratory
dents who graduated
The community was apparently satisfied with the college’s
in 1971 line up near Center (Boykin Hall), Student Center,
progress, deciding to maintain the status quo on the college’s Board of the college’s modular Vocational-Technical Building (Towsley
Trustees. Three members – Peter Huntsinger, William Bonelli and buildings. It was the
college’s second Hall) and portions of the Physical Education
Edward Muhl – won re-election in April.
graduation ceremony Center.
And, events in Southeast Asia continued to polarize public opin- – and the first to Sadly, Dr. William Bonelli, the recently
actually be held on
ion. The case of Army Lt. William Calley, accused of massacring inno-
the permanent cam- re-elected first president of the Board of
cent civilians at Mai Lai, was the subject of a heated April 29 student pus. Trustees, did not live to see the college’s first
forum organized by communications instructor William Baker.
College life amid the permanent building. He died suddenly on Feb. 22, 1972 at the age of
The college debuted its new marching band and crowned its first temporary modular 49. The college’s first permanent structure, the Instructional
homecoming queen – Vicki Sinclair – during half-time ceremonies in structures was typical,
with students painting a Resource Center, would be renamed in his honor. Newhall’s post-
November. The mighty Cougar football squad dispensed the College promotional banner master, Francis Claffey, was appointed to fill the vacant board seat.
of the Desert Roadrunners by the score of 49-0. The 25-piece band was (top) and gathering
around a table between The second commencement ceremony on the permanent campus
assembled by music instructor Robert Downs.
classes to socialize produced 143 graduates – up from 89 the previous year. The college
As 1972 began, it was impossible to ignore the small mechanized (above).
was experiencing solid growth, but even that was dwarfed by bigger
army of bulldozers and graders that was reshaping the property south
news: Construction of the Dr. William G. Bonelli Instructional
of the temporary campus. The $1 million project was preparing the
Resource Center was authorized to move forward.
land for the buildings that would eventually rise from the site, includ-
In November 1972, voters statewide authorized the $160 million
ing the first permanent building, the Instructional Resource Center
Community College Construction Act, which was worth about $11.2

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