The Northwest Mississippi Community College Board of Trustees approved at its regular monthly meeting June 14 a multi-million dollar, three-year capital improvement plan for the college. “Building on Tradition” is comprised of three sections, future projects, current renovation projects and demolition projects, according to Northwest President, Dr. Gary Lee Spears.

“We have been working on this plan for months,” said Dr. Spears, who will begin his third term as president of the college July 1. “I know this is an ambitious plan, but those of us who have worked on it—staff, faculty, administration—agree that these are projects we need in order to move forward.”

Projects beginning this year include a major expansion of the existing physical science building on the Senatobia campus ($6,294,345*) and Phase III of the DeSoto Center ($989,500) in Southaven. The construction bid for the DeSoto project was awarded in May, and includes renovation of classrooms into biology labs and the build-out of a basement area to create additional teaching spaces needed to meet growing enrollment. Construction has already begun on a new president's home ($477,500) on the Senatobia campus.

New projects on the Senatobia campus include construction of a Child Development Technology facility ($1,600,000), and a dedicated building for the Associate Degree Nursing program ($3,600,000). The Nursing building will allow the College to increase nursing enrollment to help meet a state wide shortage of nurses, according to Dr. Spears.

Other projects include a new facility for the college's Business Office ($1,000,000) and a new building for the Tool and Die Technology and Automotive Technology programs ($2,550,000).

“This facility will allow these two programs to grow,” said Jerry Nichols, dean of Career and Technical Education on the Senatobia campus. “For the past two years, Northwest Tool and Die graduates have placed at the top of their class at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK) plant in Georgetown, Ky. We also need space for our Automotive Technology program, which is a partnership program with Chrysler.”

The building program also includes an expansion at the Lafayette-Yalobusha Technical Center in Oxford ($1,400,000) to create new teaching spaces for technical and academic programs.

"In order to make way for construction of the Nursing and Child Care facilities, several buildings will need to be demolished and their sites reclaimed for re-use," said Mike Robison, director of the Physical Plant. Demolition plans call for removing four rental houses and one unoccupied residence owned by the college. Other buildings are also tagged for demolition in long-range plans.

Minor renovation already in progress includes an overlay of Holder Road and creation of new classrooms and faculty offices on the ground floor of the Lafayette Humanities Building.

“This is a very impressive plan that addresses some extreme needs on our campus,” said M. Clarence Sparks Jr., chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Funding for these projects will come from institutional funds, county allocations and state bond money.

* These amounts are project estimates.