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DECADE EIGHT

The 1990s marked the beginning of a new era for SRJC. Dr. Robert F. Agrella, SRJC’s fourth President, was hired in the spring of 1990, taking the administrative reins when Dr. Roy Mikalson retired.

SRJC led community colleges into the information age with innovative computerized student records program and was poised to further embrace technology when the state was rocked by a recession. State funding for California’s community colleges was cut, and fees crept up to $12 per unit.

Enrollment fluctuated somewhat throughout the 1990s, yet SRJC continued to thrive. Telephone registration erased the long lines that had previously plagued students. Online registration was launched in the mid-1990s, and today the college Web site, www.santarosa.edu, offers a world of information and course details, with the majority of SRJC’s students enrolling online. SRJC’s use of the Internet expanded dramatically. Faculty began offering online studies as early as 1996 through the Center for Advanced Technology in Education (CATE).

Classes began at the newly constructed permanent Petaluma Campus, and a small center in Coddingtown Mall opened, offering short-term classes to upgrade computer and business skills.

SRJC’s expansion west continued to its maximum boundary. The Pedroncelli Center, the Robert Call Child Development Center, and the Button Building were constructed in the 1990s.  Late in the decade, an instructor was terminated after being accused of writing anonymous “hate mail.” Following the uproar among a sharply divided College, the instructor was reinstated two months later. Following the episode, the College drafted its own Magna Carta that outlined values and principles to guide the College.