Higher education institutions face building boom

By Holly Fisher
Contributing Writer

The Holy City could become known as the “Learned City.” From nursing to building arts to law, anyone wanting to study almost anything can come to the Charleston region.

Established higher education institutions like Trident Technical College, Charleston Southern University and the College of Charleston are embarking on major expansions. And new schools—the American College of the Building Arts and the Charleston School of Law—are opening their doors in the Lowcountry.

Trident Technical College

Despite Johnson & Wales’ departure for Charlotte, N.C., the culinary training void is being filled by Trident Technical College as it plans to launch a new culinary and hospitality training center this fall. The college is awaiting approval on a bachelor’s of professional studies degree in culinary arts and should have a decision this year.

In 1998, TTC was looking to grow its culinary arts program even before Johnson & Wales announced it was leaving the area. Now, TTC president Mary Thornley says the college hopes to be that culinary training center replacement. “I think we’re going to be able to attract a lot of students. It’s a glamorous field and this will be a glamorous facility.”

TTC is undergoing other major expansions and renovations on its North Charleston campus and  will spend $45 million between 2005 and 2007 on projects that will double the square footage of the main campus.

The impact will be enormous, says Thornley. Dozens of buildings will be affected as offices and classrooms are moved and shuffled. Even the Palmer Campus downtown and the Berkeley Campus near Moncks Corner could see changes.

TTC’s Complex for Industrial and Economic Development renovation will house the Culinary and Hospitality Training Center, an Information Technology Center, a Learning Center and an Electro-Mechanical Skills Lab.

Phase 2 of the complex will be completed in August. Phase 3 will complete renovations to the 228,000-square-foot facility and should be finished by mid-2006. Phase 3 projects include adding the Learning Center, classrooms and an industrial electricity area of study.

TTC is also making a significant investment in its technological infrastructure with the implementation of a Cisco high-bandwidth network that will connect all systems—e-mail, voice, fax—to one digital highway, Thornley explains.

“That will open up what we can do with distance education,” she notes. “And from a maintenance standpoint, it will be more economical.”

The new network will largely be in place with the completion of Phase 2 of the industrial complex.

As for adding more programs of study, TTC is always open to suggestions from the community and strives to meet local workforce needs. In 2004, TTC added a new EMT associate’s degree to fill a community need. And the college is seeking more than $6 million for a new nursing building.

“The programming needs drive the facilities,” Thornley says. “We try to respond to what is needed and what our three counties need us to be doing.”

College of Charleston

Tucked into historic downtown, the College of Charleston is becoming a preferred choice for students around the country. This year’s freshman class had an average SAT score of 1208. “Hopefully we’re attracting the cream of the crop,” says Mike Robertson, director of media relations.

Attracting top-notch students isn’t a problem, but finding a place to put them is becoming more challenging. Because of its location in the heart of downtown Charleston, C of C doesn’t have much room to grow. Enrollment as of fall semester 2004 was 9,866.

“Our big challenge is space,” Robertson says. “We had a spurt of growth 10 years ago and there’s only so many places we can go.”

So the college is improving its current facilities and building where it can. Residence halls are undergoing renovations and, Robertson says, the overall goal is to continue to grow while making C of C a good learning environment.

Part of that ongoing process is President Lee Higdon’s Fourth Century Initiative, a four-year enhancement program with the ultimate goal of making the college “a nationally preeminent public liberal arts and sciences university.” Components include decreased class size, more research opportunities and additional course offerings, which means C of C is hiring more professors with doctorates and decreasing class sizes to about 15 to 18 students.

“We want to be one of the preeminent education centers in the South,” Robertson says. “That may take a while but that’s our goal.”

From an application standpoint, C of C is now being compared to Duke University, North Carolina State University and the College of William & Mary—in addition to Clemson University and the University of South Carolina, he notes.

Top developments for the college in 2004 included construction of a new library and increased freshman class SAT scores. Fall semester 2004 took the college a step further into technology as the campus become equipped for wireless Internet. Also, Robertson points out, C of C was recently designated the 27th most wireless college in the nation by Intel Corp.

On tap for 2005 are:

• The opening of the Addlestone Library, a $33.5 million facility that opens this month and will be dedicated in April.
• The opening this semester of the Beatty Center, which will house the business school and Tate Center for Entrepreneurship. Last year, the School of Business and Economics also hired Dr. Robert Pitts as its new dean.
• In June, crews will begin construction on the athletics complex, which will include a basketball arena.
• A new major called discovery informatics will be added for fall semester. This relatively new field of study focuses on analysis of large datasets. This is the first discovery informatics undergraduate program in the country; about 50 students will be accepted each year.

Also slated to begin in the fall are a bachelor of arts in Latin American and Caribbean studies; a bachelor of science degree in hospitality and tourism management; and a master’s degree in historic preservation, which is a joint program with Clemson University.

Charleston Southern ­University

For a young university, Charleston Southern University is rapidly expanding. Situated in the midst of Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties, President Jairy Hunter says CSU has the “most unbelievable location. We are really blessed strategically.”

Hunter is working to turn that location into a university community. New facilities are on the drawing board as well as under construction and the university is looking to expand its programs of study. With almost 3,000 students, CSU is predicting 3% annual enrollment growth. And facilities are the focus for the coming decade.

A new science building, additional faculty offices and a Christian Leadership Center will be completed in the coming years. At $15 million, the science building is CSU’s largest undertaking. Phase 1 consists of 50,000 square feet and will be completed in June 2005; Phase 2 will come in the next decade.

The nursing program is connected to the science building and plans are to grow that program as well. Currently 25 new nursing students are admitted each year and CSU hopes to increase that number to 32 new students.

Other upcoming projects include:

• A coffee shop at the front of the CSU library, which also is undergoing inside renovations. Students can grab a mocha while they study inside the shop or sit on the outdoor patio. This is part of the overall plan to develop the center of campus. The coffee shop will open this fall.
• CSU is in the process of raising funds for construction of the $2.5 million Christian Leadership Center, which will have a conference room with capacity for 100. Hunter says he hopes the center will attract large conferences. It should be open in 2008, possibly sooner.
• A $2.2 million addition is planned for the cafeteria and will be completed at the end of this year.
• A $2.5 million athletic complex will be constructed near the football field. It will house locker rooms for women’s and men’s track teams as well as locker rooms for home and visiting football teams. Study rooms will be located on the second floor and an upper level area will provide CSU alumni with a special vantage point for watching football games. In addition, a $300,000 electronic sign will be situated at the end of the football field facing Highway 78 to serve with a marquee announcing upcoming events. It will be installed and operating by the fall.

Despite all those projects in the pipeline, CSU is still thinking about future growth. The university has 350 acres but is using less than 200. In an effort to make some of its excess land profitable, CSU is developing some of the 48 acres around Interstate 26 that it owns. Through a joint venture, CSU will lease portions of the property, allowing the university to raise money for its projects while giving it the option in 50 or 75 years to take back the land for university development.

“We are looking at our property as a kind of endowment,” Hunter says. “We see it as an investment, a way to generate income.”

CSU is creating a separate corporation under the name Charleston Interstate Development Corp. that will run and manage the development of the property. Already a brand-name hotel is planning to build on the site. Hunter would not give a specific name of the hotel chain but he also noted other companies have expressed interest in building offices and medical facilities on the property.

In addition, two floors of this new hotel will be designated for CSU’s use should the university need overflow housing at the beginning of the school year. The hotel will have 100 rooms as well as conference rooms. Hunter says CSU could decide to work with the hotel to create a hotel management program.

“You don’t have to be big to be good and unique,” Hunter says. “We have a family environment; you can almost put your arms around the campus.”

American College of the Building Arts

By launching a four-year degree program last August, the American College of the Building Arts staked a claim for itself as the only licensed college in the United States to offer such building arts degrees. Previously providing community programs, the college now opens its doors to students from around the country.

The college is purchasing McLeod Plantation with plans to restore the facilities for use as classrooms and office space. Eventually the plantation will become the college’s permanent campus. Although there was some controversy about the school purchasing the property, college president David AvRutick says this adaptive reuse makes sense for the plantation.

Owned by the Historic Charleston Foundation for 14 years, the plantation can’t function as a museum and AvRutick says turning it into a facility for building arts is a great fit. The plantation’s 11 buildings will be restored and converted into offices and classrooms.

“There is no better steward for this property,” he says. “This is something everyone in Charleston and the country will be proud of.”

The school’s majors include plastering, architecture, stone carving, carpentry, masonry and ironwork. With less than 50 students, the college will be one of the smallest in the country. Students can receive either an associate’s or a bachelor’s degree in applied sciences.

The college has received a $2.75 million grant to underwrite educational efforts for two years. AvRutick could not disclose the name of the grantor but said a public announcement would be made soon.

AvRutick says the college is recruiting primarily around the Southeast but eventually will begin soliciting students nationally. Although certificates and training programs in building arts are available, the American College for the Building Arts is unique in that students also receive a four-year degree, which gives them more options and opens more doors.

And the need for skilled artisans is huge, AvRutick points out. “Architects have stopped designing [for these trades] because we’re not training people.” He notes that the college is not just about restoration and historic design. “We’re not an academic Colonial Williamsburg. We focus on six building trades and that applies to modern buildings as well.”

Charleston School of Law

The Charleston School of Law opened in August 2004 with about 200 full- and part-time students. The new school is located on Mary Street downtown, having remodeled the building formerly occupied by the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce. The building is now equipped with large and small classrooms, seminar rooms and a law library. Students spent their first semester studying contracts, criminal law, property, torts, legal research and writing, civil procedure and professionalism.

“Everything has gone better than we could have expected,” says Richard Gershon, dean of the School of Law. The school projected a fall semester enrollment of 125 but ended up with 138 full-time students and 62 part-time students who take courses in the evenings.

“Last year we hadn’t even formulated a plan for an evening program, but the demand was there,” he says.

Gershon says the school has attracted excellent students in terms of exam scores and personalities. “Their credentials are wonderful. Their LSAT scores are much higher than you would expect for a brand new school. These are also just really great people.”

More than 75% of the students are from South Carolina, which further demonstrates how much the state needed a second law school. “There are four million people in South Carolina, but there was only one law school [at the University of South Carolina]. Now there are two. North Carolina has twice as many people with five law schools and just announced a sixth (at Elon University). This state has a lot of people who wanted to go to school in South Carolina and weren’t able to,” Gershon says.

The School of Law plans to admit another 200 students this fall and is equipped to handle a total of 600 students for the three-year program (part-time students attend for about four years). The school is accepting applications for the fall and anticipates receiving 900 applications by the March 1 deadline.

With a mission of public service, the school also wants to stay small—partly because of space constraints, but also because it allows the staff and faculty to really get to know the students, Gershon says.

Another seven faculty members will be added this year, and once the school is fully operational, Gershon says, it will have about 60 faculty and staff members.

Gershon says the legal community has been incredibly supportive—some members of the local legal community are even interested in part-time teaching.

“We want to be a law center, not just a law school,” he says. “We’ve opened our doors to the legal community to use the library. They have been supportive … they are excited about hiring our students as clerks and being involved in law school as part-time teachers. We’ve been really lucky to have that kind of support.”

Gershon expects 2005 will be even better for the new school. “This is just the beginning, and I think people should expect to see great things from this law school.”

Holly Fisher is a regular contributor to the Business Journal. E-mail her at editorial@crbj.com.

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