GCC squeezed out a narrow victory for Bond Measure G on Tuesday, culminating months of intensive campaigning by staff and students.

The measure tallied 57.8 percent of votes; 55 percent was required for passage.
“I don’t think the [no] voters were against the college, they were against the taxes,” said Dr. Armine Hacopian, co-chair of the Yes on G campaign and a member of the
college’s board

of trustees. “We received 12,627 [yes] votes, and we are proud of that.”

College officials now need to look over the list of projects to be started or continued, and a citizen’s oversight committee will be created to oversee expenditures, said Hacopian.

Among the priorities cited by Hacopian: the construction of the Allied Nurses Center, additional parking, increased classrooms at the Adult Community Training Center, and upgrading of the computer technology infrastructure to better serve students.

ACTC, located off campus on Garfield Avenue, is so cramped for space that there is a student waiting list of 3,500 people.

“First and foremost they should build more parking,” said Dan Wengert, president of Associated Students. “It was on the first phase of construction when the bond was presented to me, and I expect that it still will be.”

Wengert and the other ASGCC officers campaigned for the bond measure over the winter session by producing a video, visiting classes with presentations, and volunteering at the bond headquarters in downtown Glendale. They also registered voters in Plaza Vaquero on the first day of school, Feb. 19, also the deadline for voter registration.

“Measure G wouldn’t have made it if it weren’t for the efforts of college faculty and of every single person who got out there to make sure that the bond measure received the exposure that it did,” Hacopian said.

Volunteers at polling places on Tuesday checked off the Measure G supporters who voted and called others to make sure that they made it to the polls, Hacopian said. About 70 people congregated at headquarters on election night waiting for early returns.

The absentee ballots came in between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., and we knew that it [Measure G] was going to make it,” said Wengert. The group celebrated victory by uncorking apple cider and toasting the campaign workers.