Over the summer two groups, the Coalition to Preserve Claremont's Character and the Friends of the Bernard Biological Field Station, took legal action to block the construction of the Keck Graduate Institute of Life Sciences (KGI).

The move is the latest opposition to the construction of KGI on 11.4 acres of the Bernard Field Station (BFS), an 87-acre parcel of land endowed for university construction and currently used as a wilderness preserve. The North Campus Master Plan (NCMP) of the Claremont Colleges, which calls for the construction of KGI on the BFS, was previously approved by the City of Claremont.

KGI's opposition sees a referendum seeking to suspend the development agreement between the Colleges and the city as the most likely roadblock to KGI construction.

As a result, The Coalition to Preserve Claremont's Character conducted a drive to include such a referendum in the next election.

Despite 100-degree heat and the absence of a significant part (50-60 percent) of the permanent Claremont population, they were able to collect well over the requisite number of signatures.

"We spent our evenings taking petitions to stores, the farmers' market, and Monday night concerts," coalition organizer Carol Gill explained.

However, the coalition was unable to obtain a sufficient number of signatures soon enough to place the referendum on the November ballot. Unless the issue is resolved in the intervening time span, the referendum will appear once again on the coming March ballot.

In another move to prevent KGI construction, the Friends of the Bernard Biological Field Station have challenged the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in a lawsuit against the city of Claremont in which the Colleges are named as a "real party of interest."

The EIR details the environmental impact of the planned construction. Despite significant student, faculty, and citizen opposition, the city's architectural commission approved the EIR on July 28, 1999. The lawsuit alleges that the EIR is inadequate and that the city's approval of the NCMP was thus illegal.

"At present, representatives of the Friends of the Field-Station, the City of Claremont, and CUC are discussing the possibility of a compromise position on the Field Station which might result in the lawsuit being dropped,' explained CUC President Brenda Barham Hill.

If the Colleges and the Friends are unable to resolve their differences, then the matter will go to a Los Angeles judge. The Friends have made a proposal, but citing the sensitivity of the ongoing negotiations, declined to comment on either its status or its details.

In addition, Barham Hill also explained that the colleges "do not believe that the EIR is inadequate, but rather that the lawsuit was brought as a mechanism to stop the North Campus Master Plan. Whether the lawsuit is successful or not will not determine the future of the Field Station.

This is a college matter, not an issue that the City of Claremont has a right (or a wish) to determine."

The Friends disagree. "Throughout the process of the EIR consideration, people brought up the issues that the lawsuit is concerned with. I think they are real issues.

There's a considerable history and body of law that says that citizens within a town have a right to be concerned with how the land is used, and that's why there's the EIR process," explained Friends board member Susan Schnek.

The Friends and the Colleges are also in disagreement over the impact on the portion of the BFS which would remain undeveloped.

Barham Hill maintains that the NCMP "commits the colleges to retaining a field station for at least 10 years so long as the presidents determine it is part of the curriculum."

For her part, Schnek maintains that "no one on either side is arguing that there isn't significant residual damage... the EIR still comes up with there being significant impacts.

That's why they had to add in things as benefits so that the architectural commission could issue the statement of overriding consideration [and allow construction]."

Even KGI itself is not without detractors. It has repeatedly been criticized for being too closely tied to industry and for not guaranteeing tenure to its faculty.

In addition, certain elements in the Claremont Colleges student body are wary of biotechnology in general and oppose the school on those grounds.

A Five College activist group, Students for the Field Station, also oppose the building of KGI.

"SFS supports the full protection of the field station and is eager to see the college step up with some kind of agreement," SFS co-chair Andrew Cvitanovich '02 explained.