1999

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East Central begins two major construction projects in 1998 Construction wa:. beglm at

ECCC completed a renovation of a major portion of the middle classroom building cn its South Campus. The college's mathe– matics faculty is housed in the facility which also includes new physics and computer sci– ence classrooms and laborato– ries. Other campus projects com– pleted m 1998, or nearing com– pletion, include the "Welcome Home" project and a fitness trail. The "Welcome Home" proj– ect involved the recreation of an archway that greeted cam– pus visttors from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s. The new structure was completed at a cost of $60,000 with most of the funding coming from private donations. Included in the archway is an electronic mar– quee where upcoming campus events and activities are publi– cized on a daily basis. Nearing completion is a new fitness trail located between the college pond and softball

field. The half-mile path is now lighted and eventually will include several exercise stations. Cost of the project is estimated at $100,000 with funding provided by private donations and a grant from the U.S. Department of Transporta– tion, Federal Highway Ad– ministration, National Recrea– tional Funding Program. Among improvements made m the area of technology were the installation of a mid-range computing system rated silt times faster than the previous model, which will enable the college to distribute more of the student informlttion furictions– such as registration ana advis– ing--across the college network and the Internet. ECCC also achieved the goal of providing Pentium multimedia-capable computing hardware for every faculty desktop; began the on– going process of teaching courses over the World Wide Web; and installed a Learning Skills Center c~mputer network with

ECCC in 1998 on two new facili – ties--the Student Umon Build– mg and Erma Lee Barber Hall , a new dormitory for female stu– dents. The Studen t Uruon. a 14,104- square-foot structure, w 111 ho~e office space for Student Servtces personnel and is bemg built at a cost of 52.2 million. Funding for the much-needed facility comes from :.tate l:x:n:i sources with no mdebtedness to the college or its support dts– trict. Construction of Barber Hall , a 26,529-square-foot structure which will provide living space for 128 students, also got underway thanks to a $3 mil– lion loan from the U.S. De– partment of Agriculture, Rura l Development Division. The loan will be repaid over a 25- year period through special tax levies approved by the district county boards of supervisors. In addition to the construc– tion projects started in 1998,

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