Baltimore City Community College is embarking on an $11 million renovation that will spruce up its aging Liberty Heights campus and build a new computer lab to support growing online enrollment.
College officials plan to upgrade the HVAC, fire, sprinkler, and other systems in the administrative offices of the main building, college spokesman Patrick Onley says. That building dates to 1965.
"It's long due for an overhaul," Onley says of the main building.
The new computer lab will support distance learning. Currently, 2,143 students take at least one online course. That represents about one third of its total enrollment of credit students and is an 11 percent increase over last year, Onley says.
"That's why it's important for us to have a new computer lab."
Construction on the renovations should begin in October, and January 2012 for the computer lab. Onley says he is not sure when the projects will be completed.
The college hopes to get $2.25 million from the state's 2012 budget and another $8 million from that of fiscal 2013 to go toward the renovation.
Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Patrick Onley, Baltimore City Community College