Lee University employees Brian Lewis, left, and Silas Turner were part of a crew spreading mulch and planting shrubs at the university sanctuary. Dr. Jerome Hammond, university vice president for community relations, told MainStreet Cleveland Monday there will be more inaugural events this year for the new building.CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The next big construction project on the Lee University campus will be a communications building, Dr. Jerome Hammond, vice president for community relations, told MainStreet Cleveland members Monday.
Hammond said groundbreaking could be about six months away for a 40,000-square-foot building devoted to communications studies. It likely will be built somewhere around the old First Baptist Church building, acquired by the university last year, he said.
“This is a growing major at Lee, and very popular,” Hammond said.
“We are in the very early stages of designing that building,” he said. “I wouldn’t dare speculate when it will be done.”
There have been seven major buildings completed on Lee’s campus since 2000, including the Paul Conn Student Union that year; the McKenzie Athletic Building in 2002; the Humanities Center, 2004; Leonard Center, 2007; School of Religion, 2008; the Science and Math Complex, 2010; and the chapel in 2011.