The School of Media Arts building, a projected $35 million facility slated for construction in June 2007, may be knocked off schedule if a crucial state bond measure is delayed.

“There’s no support for another major bond measure,” said Dr. Jack Friedlander, executive vice-president of Educational Programs.

In 2004, voters passed Proposition 55, an educational facilities measure that helped cover the building’s schematics, but not the actual construction. Now, with California’s $25 billion-plus deficit, there’s less money to spare.

“The state hit hard financial times,” Friedlander said. The SoMA building will depend on California to pass a similar bond measure to ensure its completion.

The building will house multimedia, graphic design, film studies, production, journalism and photography programs all in one location.

“We’re really scattered to the wind,” said SoMA Director Guy Smith of the current campus arrangement of these disciplines.

Smith said it’s hard to make students concerned about the project. “It’s unlikely that a current student will see the completion of this building,” Smith said.

He added that one of his students even voted against a bond measure that would have bolstered City College funds.

“He said, ‘I’ll be gone before the money gets here,'” Smith said.

The SoMA building, Friedlander emphasized, has not yet experienced a delay. However, the measure must be approved and passed by this time next year for the project to be on schedule.