NORFOLK
Darryl Thornton's hangout spots at the Tidewater Community College campus tend to be wherever the student can find a clear piece of wall outside one of the buildings.
That could soon change, as school officials on Monday announced plans to build a new student center to house child care, eateries, lounge areas and a fitness center.
"It is our version of Webb Center, Godwin Center," said TCC President Deborah DiCroce, referring to student hubs at Old Dominion and Norfolk State universities, during a groundbreaking ceremony. "Dare I say, only better. TCC style. A room of their own."
TCC's stand-alone student centers, which will eventually be added to the other three local campuses, are the first of their kind for Virginia's community colleges.
The Norfolk center, expected to open next summer, will be five levels and 57,000 square feet. It will be located in the plaza area next to TCC's Martin Building at 300 Granby St.
The main facade will be heavily glassed and face the courtyard. The plaza area will be reduced in size but will have an outdoor dining area and will continue to serve as a walkway between Granby and Monticello Avenue.
The center will include a kitchen and dining area, a cafe for students and the public, student organization meeting and work areas, fitness and multipurpose physical activity space, and a game room. The center also will offer a "child-minding" area, meant for short periods for kids from infants to age 12. The student center also will have study rooms and lounges.
DiCroce said students have repeatedly asked for places to hang out between classes and to hold club meetings.
The school's population has grown nearly 50 percent since 1998, to more than 40,000 students. More of those students are going to school full time and spending all day on campus but have no place at school to mingle, DiCroce said. In addition, the population is getting younger; 50 percent of the students are 18 to 24 years old. In 1998, 22 percent of students fell into this age group.
Work on centers at the Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach campuses will begin soon. Virginia Beach, the largest campus, will be next in line and will have the largest center at 89,500 square feet. The others will be similar in size to Norfolk's. All are expected to open by 2011-12.
The estimated cost of all four centers is $82.6 million, with the Norfolk center costing about $17.6 million. All will be paid with student fees and contributions from the cities to cover site development.
Thornton said he'll definitely take advantage of the new center. He said he often drives back to his Chesapeake home to kill time between classes or he'll sit with friends at the library.
"But you can only talk so loud in the library."
Denise Watson Batts, (757) 446-2504, denise.batts@pilotonline.com
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I'd like to take a moment...
... to introduce everybody to this new blocking feature here at hamptonroads.com. Log in, scroll down to the particularly offensive and bigoted comments you find below, click on "hide all comments from this user", and go on pretending that there aren't really that many hate-filled people living in your town.
Hey...I'm a TCC student
I'm a TCC student and I'm not a hoodlum. Personally, I think the student center is a common sense idea. Every other campus has one, from community colleges to prestigious universities. If anything is a standard for college campuses it's a student center. Let's not act like this is some kind of splurge, strange idea, or waste of tax dollars. Education is not just about studying, it's about creating a welcoming environment for students. I think it's needed. It's a wonder why TCC didn't have one already. And what is up with all the negative comments that pop up whenever any of the localities try to progress in some way? First it was Harbor Park, then Macarthur Center, and now - this?
Bob???
Gotta say bro that you're remarks were a bit unwarranted. I didn't see the need to degrade the students of the college. To say that an activities center will distract students is a bit absurd. I attended ODU just a few years ago, and Webb was never a distraction to me or anyone that I knew. It was a place for students to go before, in between, and after classes.
Kudos to TCC for doing something like this. With a college getting younger, most of which are full-time, it's nice to know they'll have a place to relax between classes. Schedules don't always work out so that all classes are back to back, so I don't see anything wrong with putting something like together. When major universities have these, I think it becomes permissible when you're enrollment is around 40,000 ... regardless of the number of campuses.
My only concern is security measures. The area around TCC attracts a bit of riff-raff and I would want to know that this facility wouldn't be a place for students only.
that was pretty ignorant, bob
Clearly there isn't going to be a full-time daycare center available. The "child-minding center" is designed for short periods, so the primary users will be people who will only need it for a few hours at a time, as opposed to full-time care. I don't see anything in the article about it being free so that appears to be conjecture on your part. However, it certainly is a great opportunity to have an on-site lab for students in the ECE and pre-Teaching programs, much like is seen at ODU and other larger institutions.
Many of our local kids are iscovering that tuition at four-year institutions is prohibitive, especially now that they are considered their parents' dependents until age 23, regardless of personal circumstance. TCC is light-years beyond the "community colleges" or "city colleges" of my youth, which were more like academic rehab andollege prep. Great job, TCC! Can't wait to see the new facility in VB.
jeez Bob....
did you go to a more prestigious school? I mean, its one thing to knock the school administration and the state for spending all this money in tough fiscal times on a "hangout"...but its another thing entirely to make fun of the students there and what they can accomplish. I started there and received my BS from ODU 2 years ago. In this area, you may someday be begging for a job from someone who started at TCC. I'm just trying to spare you an embarrassing foot-in-mouth moment.
Nanny State Delivers New Hoodlum Hangout
"Nanny State Delivers New Hoodlum Hangout" - Tidewater Community College broke ground on an all new student center, designed to provide services students don't really need, set their focus on something other than education, and bring even more freeloaders to Norfolk's bustling downtown. The expensive center is to be funded by taxes on residents and incremental tuition increases, and students say it's about time. "We always needs a place to chill, nowhutimsayn, nowhutimsayn," said full-time literature student Don. "Now my children will always have free day care," said mother and student Jennifer. "Will there be a bowling alley," asked Meredith. Construction has already begun and should complete by 2010.
bob is the perfect example...
...of the Government School educated. He spouts ignorant rhetoric because he has never set foot in a college or university. Almost all colleges offer physical education courses; so yes a fitness center is the norm. Meeting places "to hang?" How about meeting places to study? Child care?!?! MY GOD, Heaven forbid I'm an "older" student with a child that wants to expand my horizons. As far as the rest of your accusations, please back them up with something other than your offensive blather.
Bob, your post was ignorant hyperbole at best and downright bigoted at worst.
Maybe if they could teach
Maybe if they could teach the lower income folks not to have babies when they are in junior high there wouldn't be a need for daycare for 4 children from different fathers. But hey, if you reward people with free "earned income tax credits" (nothing is earned about it) and free daycare, *MAYBE* mom will get an education, and MAYBE moms kids won't follow the same path?
TCC Norfolk Student Center
This project is long overdue and will serve as a much needed addition to the Norfolk Campus. The other TCC campuses generally have meeting or gathering areas for students, minus Portsmouth that is. The Norfolk Campus never had a general area for students to relax or focus on student related activities such as volunteer work and school related clubs and the like. Located in the heart of a thriving downtown the Norfolk Campus had many added benefits not known to the other campuses, but one major detraction, a student center. This building will serve that purpose and students as a whole will be afforded an all around greater college experience. In addition, bumb park (Moss Campus Park) will be removed, giving the homeless once less venue to hang out and loiter. What's good for the students is good for the city!
We'll miss you little green
We'll miss you little green space! All the trees at town point park, all the trees removed along Brambleton for bLight rail, and now the remaining grass on Granby Street. There used to be cool hangouts on Granby such as Relative Theory records. But they couldn't survive (Rent was probably ridiculous among other things.) Kind of goes to show that there isn't the demand?
Talk about a waste of money -
Expansion on grnaby St. - a cafe'? when there are already many eateries up and down downtown, Fitness center? thisis a community college not a resort, a game room just what every higher learning part time campus needs. This is a tragic waste of money when TCC students are barely able to afford today's tuition they will be faced with a tuition increase to afford this planned luxury. What will be the property tax loss to the city? Crazy, just crazy.