MCC Holds Public Meeting On Plan To Move Downtown Campus
By: Vanessa Herring
Updated: January 25, 2013
Officials say MCC's downtown campus was never meant to stay in the
Sibley Building, where it has been for nearly 20 years. The student
body has grown by 31% over the last 20 years, and college officials say
the Kodak building will offer more space to accommodate the growing
student body.
Renderings of what the new campus at the Kodak building would look like were shown at Thursday night's public meeting.
Officials say the $72 million dollar project would allow the college to expand its workforce development programs. They also say it would provide better access to public transportation and enhance student life, "it's important for us to be able to expand to engage partnerships in the institution we have a lot of per-collegiate partnerships we know how important it is for students to see college as an opportunity we want to bring more of them on the campus earlier," explained Anne Kress, Ph.D., President of Monroe Community College. Kress adds, "one of the things we heard very clearly from the governor from the state of the state and also in the executive budget is a real call for community colleges to add and to expand workforce and development programs to meet the needs of the regional economic development council industry sectors, that's important, it's important enough that there's performance incentive funding attached to it, we can do that at the downtown campus and make that available to city residents."
The college is working to finalize purchase terms with Kodak officials and then a majority of legislators will have to approve the sale. That vote should happen in the next couple months.
The college's lease at the Sibley Building runs through December 2016 the hope is to move to the new campus in the fall 2016 semester.
Renderings of what the new campus at the Kodak building would look like were shown at Thursday night's public meeting.
Officials say the $72 million dollar project would allow the college to expand its workforce development programs. They also say it would provide better access to public transportation and enhance student life, "it's important for us to be able to expand to engage partnerships in the institution we have a lot of per-collegiate partnerships we know how important it is for students to see college as an opportunity we want to bring more of them on the campus earlier," explained Anne Kress, Ph.D., President of Monroe Community College. Kress adds, "one of the things we heard very clearly from the governor from the state of the state and also in the executive budget is a real call for community colleges to add and to expand workforce and development programs to meet the needs of the regional economic development council industry sectors, that's important, it's important enough that there's performance incentive funding attached to it, we can do that at the downtown campus and make that available to city residents."
The college is working to finalize purchase terms with Kodak officials and then a majority of legislators will have to approve the sale. That vote should happen in the next couple months.
The college's lease at the Sibley Building runs through December 2016 the hope is to move to the new campus in the fall 2016 semester.
