CULLOWHEE – When Western Carolina University’s Natural Science Building was built in the 1970s, Western had 6,100 students – 15 studied nursing, and none studied engineering.1
But as students increasingly gravitate to high-demand, high-tech fields, WCU has 10,400 students today, more than 600 of them nursing or pre-nursing majors, 1,700 more in health and human science programs, 600 in technology and engineering, and 500 in biology and physical science. 2
And all of them take chemistry, biology and physics in the same Natural Science Building.
“It’s 1970s technology,” Dr. Richard Starnes, Dean of WCU’s College of Arts and Sciences, says in the accompanying video. “We’re training 4,000 more students each year than this building was designed to service.”3
The building has mold and sewage leaks. When its air-conditioning units rumble into action, they render sensitive lab equipment inoperable.
“It’s inadequate in both quantity of space and, frankly, quality of space as well,” says Chancellor David Belcher.
“I personally am very concerned about the large numbers of students who cannot get spaces in existing courses. We have this building filled to capacity all day long every day – and still we cannot offer enough sections to accommodate the growth in majors and the general education needs of all of the students.”4
The $2 billion Connect NC bond package on the ballot in the March 15 primary would provide $110 million to help WCU sciences escape the ‘70s and build a new Natural Sciences Building.5
“Without a new Natural Sciences Building, our growth in these important disciplines will slow to a trickle and so will our economic impact on our region of the state,” Belcher says in the video.
“But with a new Natural Sciences Building, we will continue to be a growing cornerstone for economic development in the West.”6
1 http://www.wcu.edu/advocate/needs.html#priority1.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 http://ncleg.net/Sessions/2015/Bills/House/PDF/H943v8.pdf, p. 3.
6 http://www.wcu.edu/advocate/needs.html#priority1.
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