CCV Opens New Rutland Facility

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(Host)   This week, students are getting their first look at the classrooms, lounges and labs at the Community College of Vermont’s brand new, $8 million facility in Rutland. 

School officials say growing enrollment drove their need for a larger, more modern facility as VPR’s Nina Keck reports.

(Keck) Late morning sunlight pours into Fern Fryer’s classroom from dramatic floor to ceiling windows.  

(Fryer) "Looking at this then for next week you’re going to read four essays – Mayers, Steele, Rose and Leek."

(Keck)  Fryer uses a new classroom computer system to project her course reading list and assignments.  After class, students Michelle Carvey and Melisa Gaudreau – who’ve both been at CCV for several years, give the new classroom high marks.

(Carvey and Gaudreau) "It’s nice having a view – it’s nice having a black board over there that actually works and having enough seating for everybody is nice – I think it’s beautiful. I think the window is awesome. I was like, look at that – I’m excited to look at the art section – because I’m told it’s quite a bit nicer and bigger than what we had before.

(Keck) CCV President Joyce Judy says the new art rooms are much nicer and better equipped. The building has twice the number of computers, nine more classrooms and their newly expanded science department, she says, is state of the art.

(sound of door opening)  

(Judy) "We’re in one of the brand new science labs – science and the demand for labs was one of the real driving factors behind building our new facility. Things like anatomy and physiology we can’t run enough anatomy and physiology classes, microbiology, chemistry."

(Keck)  800 students attend CCV in Rutland. It’s the second largest of the college’s 12 campuses. Judy says that while CCV’s enrollment statewide has grown by 25 percent over the last five years, in Rutland, it’s up 30 percent. She says that may be a response to the job market, with more people wanting to fine tune their skills.

(Judy) "For many years, CCV was a college that served adults between the ages 25 and 50. And today, we’re seeing more younger students – who see CCV as an affordable way to get their first two years of college and then they transfer."

(Keck) Rutland officials say they’re pleased the college opted to stay downtown and bring new life to a busy, but vacant corner. CCV President Joyce Judy says the new building’s $8 million price tag won’t push up tuition.   They rent the building she says and while costs will go up, she says they expect enrollment in Rutland to go up as well. 

For VPR News, I’m Nina Keck in Rutland.

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