East Carolinian

Issue date: 8/14/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Staff Photo

Media Credit: Staff Photo

It's no secret: ECU is growing, and with that growth comes change.

As the university heads into its 101st year, officials are working on renovating, building and adding to the campus to accommodate the ever-expanding number of students.

"The [freshmen] class does keep growing," said John Durham, executive director of university communication and assistant secretary to the Board of Trustees. "We're at a little over 27,000 [students]. That's 1,000 more than last year."

More than 1,000 to be accurate, and officials won't know exact numbers until after the last day to drop and add classes, Sept. 3.

The university has already made some changes to dorms on campus this summer, including new sprinkler systems in the Cotton and Fleming residences, adding air-conditioning and opening up 150 beds to students in the Belk residence hall, upgrading fire alarm systems in Garrett and Jones as well as painting, cleaning and adding new mattresses to residence halls across campus.

"Students come back for the fall and think we haven't done anything," said Aaron Lucier, director of operations and associate director for Campus Living. "But we have done a lot, and in a short period of time."

Officials say that the astonishing growth at ECU is being taken seriously.

To deal with the housing overflow, a task force for enrollment, made up of faculty and students, are looking into ways to accommodate the influx of incoming freshmen. Put in place last spring, the committee is "charged with developing a plan to deal with the way the university grows," according to Durham.

Lucier says that along with the task force for enrollment, Campus Living will be looking at options on how to handle the growing Pirate population.

"Clearly it is a challenge to provide housing, classrooms and laboratories [for students]," Durham said. "We have new construction starting this semester."

In addition to housing changes, over 130 new faculty members have been added to the ECU family, including Dr. James R. Hupp, dean for the new ECU School of Dentistry, which will begin construction in the fall.

In fact, this semester, construction will begin again on the fountain in front of Wright Auditorium, which will be finished before spring graduation, Durham says. The East Carolina Heart Institute at ECU is nearing completion, and a renovated Todd Dining Hall will open its doors (and tables) to students this semester. Groundbreaking for the new Family Medicine Center is scheduled to take place this fall-Sept. 26. The Croatan, located behind Brewster and the A.J. Fletcher Recital Hall, will be exclusively a Chick-fil-A restaurant in the fall.

Two new online Masters programs (one in education and one in environmental health) will be introduced at the university this semester, along with a new doctoral program in audiology.

In the future, Durham says that a new College of Business building will be constructed, along with a new College of Education building, which is currently split up into seven different locations on campus. In addition, a building to supplement the Howell Science Building is in the works, along with a new performing arts center, which will be a place for music, theater and dance students to rehearse. The center will also include practice space and classrooms.

Durham says that these changes will take a while before they are underway.

"Nothing happens quickly in terms of facilities," he said.

A draft for these and other changes is expected to be drawn up sometime this fall.



This writer can be contacted at editor@theeastcarolinian.com.

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