THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 18, 1996 TAG: 9610180523
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 50 lines
This time last year, the four new technology labs at Tidewater Community College's Chesapeake campus were mostly empty. There was no money to outfit them, and college officials weren't sure where they were going to find it.
Now the gray rooms are lined with computers, their colorful monitors beckoning students and teachers to try a wealth of high-tech software designed to make their classes easier or connect them to the world through the Internet. Laser printers record their work with lightning speed and clarity. Elsewhere in the once-technologically challenged college, teachers and administrators also are being given computers.
The transformation has come because of a massive fund-raising campaign - partly the work of TCC-Chesapeake Provost Timothy H. Kerr, who lobbied government officials for money, and partly due to a new fund-raising committee.
The City Council gave the campus $75,000 this year to spend on technology, and the state General Assembly kicked in $200,000. A capital campaign steering committee, which began work this summer, already has raised $80,000 of its $500,000 goal.
Kerr and other officials Thursday celebrated the success and dedicated the campus' new wing, which will be named after the late Marian P. Whitehurst, a former Chesapeake mayor who helped establish TCC's Chesapeake campus.
The building, which also has 12 new classrooms, facilities for a horticulture program and the campus' first student lounge, opened last November.
``It's a first-class building,'' said state Sen. Mark L. Earley, who spoke at the dedication ceremony.
Kerr said that although the $355,000 already raised for technology for his campus was an encouraging start, it is only the beginning. The school needs money to maintain the new equipment, keep it up to date and purchase software.
``There's no end to the costs,'' Kerr said. ``It's like owning a boat.''
He cautioned the dignitaries that some of the software they had seen demonstrated Thursday would not be in actual use around the college until enough money can be raised to purchase it.
``A lot of what you see there is the future,'' he said.
Eugene C. Hogge, chairman of the capital campaign steering committee, used the ceremony as an opportunity to solicit donations.
``It's been very smooth so far,'' Hogge said. ``But now we're going to get down and get uptight and try to meet our goal of $500,000. I believe we'll meet it.'' MEMO: More information about how to contribute to the capital campaign
is available by calling Susan Cowling, 424-2121. by CNB