Middle Georgia Technical College

Midstate colleges receive state funds for construction

May 4, 2007

By Jennifer Burk, Macon Telegraph

After all the uncertainty, Macon State College President David Bell finally can breathe a sigh of relief.

After an earlier version of the state fiscal year 2008 budget eliminated $22.2 million in bond funding for a new Professional Sciences Building on campus, the final version of the budget restored the funding.

The 100,000-square-foot Professional Sciences Building will house the business and information technology divisions and a high-tech communication center.

Construction of the building is expected to begin next month and should be completed in late 2008, said Levy Youmans, vice president for fiscal affairs at the college. The building already has been designed using a previous appropriation.

Macon State also received $5 million for the design and construction of a 23,000-square-foot academic building on the Warner Robins campus. The building will include high-tech classrooms, two auditoriums, a computer lab, student support spaces and faculty offices and work rooms, college officials said.

Enrollment at the Warner Robins campus has increased from about 1,500 students when it opened in 2003 to more than 2,000 now, according to a news release.

Design and construction of the academic building is estimated to take 18 months.

Also in the budget, Fort Valley State University was given $16.8 million for a new academic classroom building.

The building is expected to have 75,000 square feet of classroom and lab space, housing classes in biology, biotechnology, chemistry, public health, counseling and psychology, as well as a dean and administrators' area.

The university will start advertising for an architect later this month, and the project is expected to be completed in fall 2009, said Cindy Gambill, public relations coordinator with Fort Valley State.

Other budgeted higher education projects in Middle Georgia include:

• $1 million in bond funding for Georgia College & State University to purchase equipment for the Parks nursing building.
• $560,000 in bond funding for Middle Georgia Technical College to purchase equipment for its Child Development Center.