IRVINE : College Celebrates Center’s Opening

Irvine Valley College will celebrate the opening of its first student center today with fireworks, a steel drum band and four sky divers descending on to the lawn in front of the facility.

The center, which opened last week, provided the campus’s first-ever cafeteria and allowed student government offices and the student lounge to move from portable trailers into permanent buildings. The lounge, with a pool table and video games, is still being readied.

The community college has been without a student center since its opening in 1979 as a satellite campus of Saddleback College in Mission Viejo. The $5.7-million center will include an admissions office, financial aid and veterans assistance office, and health, career and counseling centers.

Ceremonies will begin at 9 a.m., followed at 9:45 a.m. by a groundbreaking ceremony for the growing campus’s next major construction project--a fitness center, locker room, and athletic fields complex. Those facilities are expected to open in the spring.