Education Building Moves Forward

Project Will Ease CSM Growing Pains

A second education building is back on schedule at the College of Southern Maryland's Prince Frederick campus.

A lack of state funding pushed the building's design and preliminary engineering phase to fiscal 2011, college President Bradley M. Gottfried said. But Maryland then decided to use a different funding allocation, and the community college received enough to launch the project this year, he said.

The building will provide substantial relief for the rapidly growing campus, Gottfried said.

"Basically, we have run out of classrooms," he said of the quickly rising enrollment at the Prince Frederick campus.

On Tuesday, the Calvert Board of County Commissioners approved a letter to the state backing the construction of the $20.6 million building. The county will pay less than $5.5 million for the building, which will have classrooms, labs, offices and meeting areas.

The number of full-time students increased by more than 40 percent from 2004 to 2008, according to a study by the college. Enrollment is projected to increase this school year.

Compared to the La Plata and Leonardtown campuses, Prince Frederick has experienced the fastest growth in enrollment over the past three years, Gottfried said. "Nobody expected the growth to be as fast as we've seen."

The second building will accommodate at least two labs for a new nuclear engineering training program, which uses curriculum from the Nuclear Energy Institute. Equipment will be provided by Constellation Energy, which operates the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby.

"This training facility is one of the drivers of getting this building built," Commissioner Linda L. Kelley (R-At Large) said.

The nuclear engineering and many night classes will be off-site until the building is completed, Gottfried said.

Construction is to begin in 2012 and be completed in 2014, said Sharon Strand, the county's capital projects coordinator.

Gottfried said he hopes the construction can be expedited.