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Bond build-out
reaches
halfway point
Chancellor James L. Oblinger has a laundry list of reasons why the higher education bond referendum of 2000 is so vitally important to the university’s future. As a parent, he only needs one.
During a celebration ceremony marking the halfway point of the bond build-out held at Engineering Building I last week, Oblinger told the crowd that “I walked into this building this afternoon and went right to the third floor. Diana and I have a senior in chemical engineering and materials science – a double major – and I can tell you that through his eyes, I saw this building first,” Oblinger said. “For what it means to our students, and for Adam in particular, I can’t thank you enough as a taxpayer, as a very proud parent and as your chancellor.”
The build-out, when completed, will add more than 1.3 million square feet of new space to NC State, and will renovate more than 900,000 square feet of existing space.
The construction and renovation will, as Richard Keltie, associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Engineering, noted, help fulfill the promise to provide facilities that can “fuel the partnerships, attract talented faculty, get the best students to come here, and forge partnerships with federal agencies and other sponsoring organizations.”
As Oblinger pointed out, the bond projects will address deficiencies such as “overcrowded classrooms, leaking roofs, outdated electrical systems, cracked foundation walls, and insufficient heating and cooling capacities.”
But at its heart, the bond projects will give students a better experience.
“We note proudly that the bond passed in all 100 counties of North Carolina,” said Molly Corbett Broad, president of the University of North Carolina System. “But there are at least several dozen of those 100 counties where the percentage of citizens who ever came to a university is in the single digits. It’s those folks who wanted this university to be available for their children and for their grandchildren, and to provide them with the kind of first-rate, 21st-century education that will help their family members succeed in a global economy.
“We, in turn, have an abiding commitment to those citizens as well, and also one to utilize those resources to make the maximum improvement in the quality of the university. I believe that the greatest joy we will see unfold in the years ahead is the sort of experience that Jim and Diana Oblinger heard from their son – that is, what it makes possible for the students and for the faculty.”
Execution of the build-out has been no small achievement. Charlie Leffler, vice chancellor for business and finance, said that the university is working on 49 separate projects and phases simultaneously as part of that list. He added that when combined with the self-liquidating projects taking place at the same time, the amount of work going on amounts to the “largest building project in the history of NC State.”
“The collection of people here today represent a wide range of people both on and off the campus that make this happen,” Leffler said. “I can’t tell you how much of a real team effort it has to be in that regard. The handoffs that occur with every project along the way – literally a hundred times between all of these groups – is really the only thing that makes these buildings stand. … This is what I call a group of achievers.”
Posted March 18, 2005
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