PCC Trustees Approve New 10-Year Plan for Growth on Campus

WINTERVILLE�After countless surveys, studies, interviews and focus group meetings since April, Pitt Community College has a new plan that will guide growth on campus through 2019.

During their October board meeting, PCC Trustees approved a new facilities master plan for North Carolina�s most crowded community college that builds upon a strategy administrators approved in 2004.

Despite opening a new student center in March and renovating the Robert Lee Humber classroom building in 2006, PCC still holds the unfavorable distinction of having the least amount of space per student.

A record enrollment of 7,710 students this fall and better retention of students overall have only exacerbated the college�s need for additional space. To be more precise, MBAJ Architecture�s Angela Crawford told trustees last month that PCC has a space deficiency of 259,000 square feet.

According to college administrators, Pitt�s new master plan will be carried out in six phases and calls for more than $60 million in renovations and new construction that will create 382,000 square feet of space.

�By 2019, we will have touched every building on campus,� said Susan Everett, PCC�s Vice President of Administrative Services.

In addition to the removal of several trailers on campus and renovations to select buildings, the first two phases of the 2009-2019 plan call for construction of new classroom and sciences buildings, a new child development center and expansion of the library facility in the William Everett Building.

Phase III includes expansion of the Craig F. Goess Student Center to house the college�s bookstore, disability services program and student lounge as well as improvements to several existing facilities.

Highlighting the final three phases will be a 53,600-square-foot Design and Workforce Technology Center, an Alumni and Foundation Conference Center and two new 50,000-square-foot academic buildings to support a projected increase in enrollment.

Growth has been a common theme on the PCC campus for many years now and was one of the main topics of this year�s convocation in August.

During the event, Everett said the college would increase space on its main campus by 20 percent over the next three years as part of the 2004 facilities master plan. Funding will come in large part from the college�s portion of a local quarter-cent sales tax Pitt County voters approved in 2007, she said.

According to Everett, PCC will soon begin work on several capital improvement projects, including construction of a new 50,000-square-foot academic classroom facility, a construction and industrial technology building, and a facilities maintenance building. All will be built on the west side of campus on what was formerly known as the Bowen Farm.

Work on the new Herman Simon Building, a 35,000 square foot-addition to the college�s health sciences facilities, is well under way, Everett said, adding that the building should be ready for students at the start of the Fall 2010 Semester. Funding for the Simon Building�s construction was raised through PCC�s first-ever capital campaign, which generated approximately $7.1 million for the school.

PCC has come a long way since it was founded as Pitt Technical Institute in 1961. The college opened the Vernon White Building�it�s first�three years later, and the original campus included 75 acres on Highway 11 South. At that time, the college had 98 students.

11/03/2009