COMMUNITY - Douglas College

higher education
Higher education Douglas College
The New Westminster Campus is growing up.
A fifth and sixth floor are being added to a
portion of the north building, providing
approximately 2,260 square metres of extra space
for the Campus. Work began in May 2003 and is
expected to be complete by May 2004.
The extra floors are a welcome addition, says
College President Susan Witter. “The New
Westminster Campus is currently running at full
capacity, and as soon as the fifth and sixth floors
open in the Fall of 2004, they also will be full. The
David Lam Campus will not be far behind as
enrolment grows in the Tri-Cities area.”
The expansion will create space for about 750
additional full-time equivalent students, and is
budgeted at about $5.5 million.
“Douglas College serves one of the fastest
growing regions in BC,” she says.
“The demand for our courses is very high now and
we will soon need more space to accommodate the
extra students.”
The expansion will feature a new Learning
Technology Centre, consolidating most campus
computer labs into eight 40-seat rooms. By moving
computer labs to the new floors, space will be freed
up for general purpose classrooms as well as
dedicated-learning areas such as the proposed
Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree Program.
The area will also feature two seminar rooms, two
breakout rooms, technical facilities and bookable
faculty offices.
But the growth of the New Westminster
Campus isn’t stopping there. A Legacy Fund for
Capital Expansion has been started in anticipation
of future expansion. The College is currently
exploring the possibility of acquiring land that is
currently available near the New Westminster
Campus. The Legacy Fund currently stands
at $2.8 million.
“The provincial government has
made it clear that we will not receive
any funding for expansion from
them unless we bring some of our
own to the table,” says Witter.
“We are responsible for our
own future.”
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