JCC board sets special session on next step for dorm project

The Jefferson Community College Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting Wednesday to discuss moving forward with a dormitory project on campus.

"We don't usually have an August meeting, but we didn't want to wait until September," college President Carole A. McCoy said. "We need the board members to hear this and think about what they want to do."

The college facilities committee met earlier this week and saw a presentation, which will be brought to the full board at the meeting, about how the dormitory project could be moved forward.

The agenda for Wednesday's special meeting includes an authorization to enter a memorandum of understanding for a comprehensive preliminary plan for residence halls. The last action the Board of Trustees took on the proposed residence halls project was in March, when they authorized college officials to begin planning a dormitory project.

The college's Residence Life Committee found the median cost would be $26 million for a residence hall in the 201-to-500-bed range. The committee recommended a 250-bed hall, based on campus size and student demand.

The findings stem from an 18-month feasibility study committee members compiled by interviewing current and prospective students and touring other community colleges that have dormitories to see what works and what doesn't.

The action on the agenda for the meeting on Wednesday will still be in the planning phase of the dormitory project, but trustees will begin to see options and make decisions on details, including how the project could be financed and what style of residence halls could be built, Mrs. McCoy said.

"We need to figure out the next steps — how we're going to finance this thing and where we have the infrastructure to support dormitories on campus. We haven't done the work to determine that yet," Mrs. McCoy said. "A lot of this process has been planning and figuring out the next steps. We're still far away from executing a contract with someone, and we're really far from actually getting a shovel in the ground."

The trustees will meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Room 6-220 of the Jules Center.