THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 22, 1996 TAG: 9601220043
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
The College of The Albemarle will use a planned $2.4 million building to expand its use and teaching of technology, the Board of Trustees decided last week.
The board voted unanimously Thursday to devote the 20,000-square-foot building to computer labs and distance-learning equipment, said Barry Hartis, COA's vice president for business and finance.
The fifth major building on COA's main campus remains on the drawing board, with architects still working on design and administrators still pinning down the location on campus, Hartis said.
Officials hope to break ground on the project by the end of this year and open the building in late 1997 or early 1998, Hartis said.
Funds from a statewide community college construction bond that passed in late 1993 will pay for most of the building. Hartis said a local match of about $780,000 will round out funding.
When students, faculty and administrators began discussing how they would use the new space, the possibilities were ``pretty much wide open,'' Hartis said.
But over months of discussions, ``It was the consensus that the technology building was the most needed,'' Hartis said. ``There is almost no discipline at all that is not in some way, shape or form computer-oriented.''
Administrators had considered using part of the building for some student services departments, but chose instead to let those departments expand into 6,000 square feet of space that will be freed up in the administration building, Hartis said. by CNB