CENTER TWP. — By the beginning of fall semester, more than $4 million in improvements are scheduled to be completed at the Community College of Beaver County’s Learning Resources Center and its Process Technology Lab.
The updates will bring state-of-the-art learning environments for Beaver County college students.
CCBC’s Learning Resources Center was built in 1997. The $3.2 million in renovations will update the space to be more technology friendly and collaborative.
“The focus of the Learning Resources Center renovation is to provide active learning spaces, facilities and technology to promote student learning and engagement based upon best practices nationwide,” said Christopher Reber, CCBC president.
Renovations there will include a new cafe, group work space and small conference areas with modern facilities. Included in the package are high-definition monitors and mobile whiteboards, furniture with built-in USB ports and outlets for charging devices. Conference room upgrades include art and visual technology plus free high-speed wireless internet access. A lower conference area will also be renovated and upgraded.
Many sitting areas are mobile in order to provide “more flexibility in your moving space,” said Barbara Pschirer, an interior designer with the Pittsburgh-based Renaissance 3 Architects, which has been contracted to complete the library renovations.
“Everything’s very mobile and flexible,” Pschirer said.
The college received $1.8 million from the state for the project in August, said Glenn Natali, vice president of finance and operations. An additional $900,000 in funds became available after a capital bond was refinanced, Reber said. The remainder of the money will be coming from a capital bond.
Meanwhile, the first phase of Process Technology Lab renovations, costing approximately $1 million, will focus on renovating an existing classroom in the Community Education Center and the purchase of a simulated petrochemicals plant for use by students, said Leslie Tennant, college spokeswoman.
“The new pilot plant will enable CCBC to implement action-oriented learning in a large-scale plant environment focused on contextual problem solving and the proper processes and protocols for situations ranging from everyday maintenance to emergency shutdowns,” Tennant said.
The process technology department was developed a couple of years ago in conjunction with Shell Chemicals and the regional petrochemicals industry.
“This is a central workforce development need for the whole growing petrochemicals industry, growth that's being inspired by this plant,” Reber said. “... We're now out of space, so the program has grown to the point where we now need more lab space to keep scaling up to what we now know the need is going to be.”
The second phase of lab renovations will be to build a 4,000-square-foot expansion, which will cost an additional $3.5 million.
“Shell has invested $1 million. The Allegheny Foundation has invested $1 million. We've actually raised at least $2.5 (million) at this point,” Reber said. “The whole two-phase project will cost $4.5 (million), but for phase one, we have cash in hand from donations to proceed and will have that done, hopefully, by fall.”
The new facility will be named the Shell Center of Process Technology Education.
“It's not just the $1 million contribution,” Reber said. “They have contributed much more than that from scholarships for our students and equipment. So we've been in partnership with them, really, for six or seven years.”
Both projects are scheduled to break ground in May.
CCBC has an annual budget of $30.7 million, and had more than 3,300 credit students and 2,300 noncredit students as of last school year.