BCC Granted $21.1M For Hawthorne & Melville Halls
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Gov. Deval Patrick announced on Wednesday that $21.1 million in capital funds are heading to the Berkshires to renovate Hawthorne and Melville Halls. The projects include exterior masonry repairs as part of the renovations.
"This is the first investment in those buildings since they were built," college President Ellen Kennedy said of the 40-year-old academic halls on Wednesday. "There is no air conditioning here, which makes it difficult for us to run summer programming, the laboratories are the old style and they don't reflect the way our faculty want to teach."
Kennedy said the funds will include renovation of the school's science labs and the majority of the classrooms. The renovations were initially detailed in a mid-2000s master plan but school officials have been waiting for the state to fund the repairs since.
"This will be transformative," an excited Kennedy said only a few hours after she received the phone call from Patrick informing her of the funding.
The money comes from a $2.2 billion higher education bond bill signed in 2008, which authorized the governor to increase the percentage of state bond-funded capital projects for colleges from 3 percent to 10 percent. Those bonds have included similar projects like the Center for Science and Innovation, which is under construction at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
"Berkshire Community College is full of talent and promise and potential," Patrick said in a press release. "These funds will help the students and faculty seize the opportunities before them."
Kennedy said the school will soon begin working with the state Department of Capital Asset Management to start the design stage. A timeline beyond that is still unknown.
BCC was one of five community colleges to be awarded funding for capital projects in this round. MassBay Community College was granted $22.1 million; Mount Wachusett Community College was granted $37.9 million; Springfield Technical Community College was granted $6.8 million and Roxbury Community College was granted $20.7 million.
"Our administration is committed to maintaining Massachusetts’ reputation for world-class educational facilities,"said Lt. Gov.Timothy Murray said in the release. "By investing in Berkshire Community College and our institutions of public higher education, we are ensuring the commonwealth remains at the forefront in educating our students to meet the demands of a changing and competitive job market."
The 2013 Capital Plan includes $298 million for community colleges over five years. Read the press release here.
Tags: BCC, capital projects, higher education,
