A planned expansion of the main campus at Chattanooga State Community College on Amnicola Highway affirms the historic role of the institution in local and regional affairs. It also will allow the school to better meet the demands of students for training that will allow them to compete for jobs in an increasingly competitive workplace.
The expansion will add 15 acres, more than 350 paved parking spaces, a 25,000-square-foot garage and a 186,000-square foot building to the Chattanooga State campus. All are needed to meet current and projected demands from students and their prospective employers.
The total cost of the acquisition will be $15.5 million. It will be funded by a $9 million grant from the Tennessee Board of Regents, $3.5 million from Chattanooga State and a contribution of $3 million from Wacker Chemical. The company is a willing participant because some of the space to be purchased will be used to train its future employees. The latter, in fact, is the sort of partnership that promises broad benefits to a community that is in the midst of welcome industrial and technological expansion.
The addition to campus will create a foundation for significant campus growth. That includes the possible construction of dorms on campus and the addition of four-year degrees to Chattanooga State’s offerings. Jim Catanzaro, president of the college, provided a simple straight-forward assessment of what the expansion means to the school.
“I don’t know of anything bigger that’s happened to Chattanooga State,” he said. “We have maxed this college out. This will allow us to grow enormously.”
He’s right. Similar schools across the country have successfully added residential facilities. Indeed, doing so makes sense. Many current Chattanooga State students reside in nearby counties and find daily travel to campus both expensive and time-consuming. The availability of dorms would ease that problem and help create a new campus dynamic.
The addition of a four-year degree program might be a bit more problematic. Traditionally, schools like Chattanooga State have offered two-year degrees and worked cooperatively with institutions like the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to allow those awarded an associate’s degree to continue their education. Care should be taken to keep the missions of the state’s two- and four-year institutions separate.
Catazanaro downplays the possibility of conflict. He says Chattanooga State will offer four-year degrees in automotive and nuclear engineering, not English and history. That might be true, but Chattanooga State should continue to provide highly trained and skilled workers to businesses and industry rather than rush to expand its offerings.
Chattanooga State has won praise from area employers and is frequently cited by newcomers to the area – Alstom, Volkswagen, Wacker – as a reason for locating here. The planned and very welcome expansion should enhance the programs that have won such praise, not create new ones that might compromise them.