It stands next to the brownish, shabby and depressing portables closest to the ocean: the new, shiny little press box.

Oh and how shiny it is, with granite interior, polished concrete floors and huge glass windows facing the ocean.

Right in time for the Easter Relays at La Playa Stadium on March 26, the Luria Conference and Press Center is ready for action.

Next to it, and waiting to be opened, stand one conference room and one coach’s box.

The college has allocated a whopping $1.7 million to complete the project.

The funding came partially from donations by the Luria family and other private donors, but a substantial part of the new building was paid for through Measure V bond money. This is the same money that is supposed to cover the Campus Center and Humanities building renovations.

A better way to use the Measure V money would have been to make important repairs on campus and then finance the press box solely with private donations, making it more functional and modest.

If the board of trustees is going to spend time getting private donations for the college, they should raise focus on getting funding for fixing basic things like leaking classrooms. Then, we can start building fancy press boxes.

The portables are leaking to the point where water drips from the ceiling when it rains. But the repairing of the portables won’t happen this semester.

It’s hard to see how this new building will benefit most students or faculty members.

The new press box is a prestigious monument that would fit better at a prestigious university with higher attended athletic events, not an overcrowded City College with leaking “temporary” portables.

It’s also hard to believe that the press wasn’t taken into consideration in the design process.

The new structure is not like other press boxes.

Most press boxes don’t have granite counters and aren’t wide and spacious, or divided into two small parts. These buildings don’t need stainless steel, stonework and terraces.

In our new press box, in order to see the track at all, you would have to be seated in front of the expansive windows. Those standing in the back of the room won’t be able to see much of the track or field at all.

The center is nothing more than a shiny little thing to show off to donors and other very important people.

It may add prestige to the college, but at what cost?

The message being given from those overseeing Measure V funds is that departments occupying Campus Center and Humanities won’t get an extensive remodel to better accommodate their programs.

Instead, they’ll be forced to relocate for several months just so they can move back into a building that will be ADA-compliant, but for the most part unchanged.

If the college wants to use bond money to build symbols of its prestige, it should have prioritized the programs that actually give this institution credibility.

Academics over sports, to be more precise.