Judy Miner, Foothill-De Anza District Chancellor, presented three options to maintain, close or replace the Flint Center at the May 15 DASB senate meeting.

The three options came from the Board of Trustees after reviewing an assessment report.

“The Board of Trustees will be deciding from three options, keep it open, close it down, or demolish it and replace it with another building,” said Miner.

According to the assessment conducted, Flint Center’s reparations were split into eight levels.

If the Flint Center is kept open, price ranges from level one to five, starting with the minimum work required to make it habitable at $3.8 million. Reparations require $50 million to cover all five levels.

Completing the first five levels includes interior and exterior repairs, safety issues, accessibility issues, structural issues, replacement of equipment and mechanical and electrical components.

Level six means Flint Center would remain closed until a final decision is reached but would cost $28,000 a month.

Level seven would result in the demolition of the building and a stall to the process while plans are made.

Level eight would be the complete demolition of the center and rebuilding another facility costing about $150 million.

Although the decision will be made by the Board of Trustees, Miner added that students are the ones who could help sway their votes by sharing their ideas and opinions.

Paula Davis, Flint Center director, said stakeholders such as taxpayers, business owners, students, faculty and Cupertino community all have different interests that will be weighed out at the Academic Senate meeting on June 3.

“It’s important for De Anza students and faculty to make their voices heard but they need to be forward thinking,” said Davis.

Students would have more to say if they saw importance in the Flint Center, said Davis. One way to create that sense of value is by having more student attendance when events are held, she said.

“I think there is a value to Flint Center but the college and students don’t see it,” said Davis. “But we’ve also not done a good job in reaching out to students and faculty about that value.”

Gilbert Wong, member of the Board of Trustees, expressed his values for the building.

He his introduction to De Anza College was by visiting the Flint Center and he has great memories from those visits.

“The building needs updating as it was built as part of the De Anza campus in 1971,” said Wong.

“It is an iconic building that is beloved by the Cupertino Community.”