THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9409010207
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 122 lines
The new Paul D. Camp Community College campus, slated for completion this fall, is a modern facility about three times the size of the cramped quarters the faculty and staff have called home for more than a decade.
Still, the $3.5 million dream come true will be too small even as it opens.
``We're already overcrowded,'' said Ross Boone, director of academic instruction and overseer of the new building.
The college's Oliver K. Hobbs Campus is on Kenyon Road, off U.S. Route 58 near the geographical center of Suffolk and about five miles west of the downtown Pinner Street facility. The new campus is scheduled to open in January for the spring semester, Boone said. But the sleek, one-story, red-brick building with its green, metal roof is just one wing of what college officials hope will become a multilevel, multipurpose complex.
``We want to build Phase Two quickly,'' said Leonard T. ``Pete'' Parker, the college's dean of finances.
The first building, about 34,000 square feet, has a dozen classrooms, a 24-station science laboratory, an automated learning resource center - the library - a cluster of 11 faculty offices and counseling areas, administration offices, a student lounge and snack area, and a lobby.
Nearly 600 students now take classes in Suffolk. And if the enrollment grows as expected and funding is approved for additional wings, the facility's size would nearly triple again, Parker said.
But the prospects of additional construction money look rather bleak in the face of proposed state cuts for higher education. However, both Parker and Boone predict the need for a second building will soon be apparent.
``As the demand becomes greater and greater,'' Boone said, ``we have to grow.''
College officials predict that Suffolk enrollment will grow by 25 percent a year once the Hobbs Campus opens.
``In four years, we will be twice where we are now,'' Boone said, adding that he believes the enrollment will double by the turn of the century.
But those who have coped with inadequate space and equipment at the leased facility on Pinner Street, near the city's core and surrounded by businesses and industries, are delighted with the upcoming move, scheduled for November and December. Employees will work through the Christmas holidays to be ready for classes to open there in January.
The Pinner Street site - a small, cinder-block building - originally housed a dairy, then later the Department of Social Services. The building, about a third the size of the Hobbs Campus, houses six small classrooms, inadequate laboratory facilities and halls that doubled as conference space and study centers.
``This is a much better-looking facility, yet we are small,'' Boone said. ``But we'll take what we can get.''
Some planned uses of the new building will be put on hold. Some rooms will house classes now, but later they will be converted for technical programs, if warranted.
``We have to see if there are temporary adjustments we can make until Phase Two,'' Boone said.
College officials had hoped to start with a facility nearly twice as large - 60,000 square feet - for the first phase but pared their plans to make it easier to persuade legislators to fund the initial construction. Plans for Phase Two call for a three- or four-story building about the same size as the first wing.
The Phase One building's focal point will be the lobby, whose rear wall of glass allows a view of a courtyard and woods beyond. The lobby will house a constantly changing exhibit of artwork by local artists, coordinated by Linda Bunch and the Suffolk Art League.
``Not only do we want to be physically in this community,'' we want to be of this community,'' Boone said.
The new facility also will allow the college to expand its training programs for local businesses and industries.
``We want to be able to respond to the large company and to the small company, the `mom and pop' operation,'' Boone said. ``I hate for people to leave Suffolk, looking for experts, and we had them on Pinner Street.''
With the new science facility, additional courses can be offered, including higher levels of biology, chemistry and, eventually, physics. Only general biology has been taught at the Pinner Street facility.
Courses also can be beamed by satellite to Suffolk from the college's headquarters in Franklin.
``We will be able to develop and transmit our courses and anything else in the system,'' Boone said. ``It opens up a whole new world and a whole new set of opportunities.''
A 30-station computer lab will allow access to the local area network, or LAN, allowing users to hook up with research systems on the campus and across the state.
``One of the things we want to do is offer courses, for credit or non-credit, for people who did not come along in the computer age,'' Boone said, to teach them to use computers.
Eventually, additional faculty will likely be needed, particularly adjunct - or part-time - professors, allowing the college to offer a wider variety of courses, Boone said.
``It's not the building, it's the people,'' Boone said. ``We've got the best staff, the best students that anyone could ever hope for.''
The Hobbs Campus promises even greater potential for higher-education opportunities in the area.
``It's a dream come true for me that I can come home and give back to this community,'' said Boone, a Suffolk native who has taught in various public school systems and universities.
Speaking of giving, the new campus' namesake, Oliver K. Hobbs, donated the 25 acres for the school site. A retired Suffolk business executive, Hobbs said at the June 1993 groundbreaking that he was humbled but honored by the decision to name the campus for him.
``You've got to be excited about this,'' Boone said. ``How can you not be excited?'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Ross Boone, director of academic instruction, and Dave Lydick,
professor of business management, tour the new Paul D. Camp
Community College campus on Kenyon Road in Suffolk.[color cover
photo]
At top is the new wing of the Paul D. Camp Community College under
construction on Kenyon Road. Above, Ross Boone, director of
academic instruction and overseer of the new building, shows a
sketch of the landscaping and the architect's rendering.
by CNB