EMORY, Va. – More than 100 Emory & Henry College students are moving into new digs this week – a brand new $5.5 million dormitory that is the first of several new structures planned for the campus.
“What I like most about this building is it shows the direction the college is moving,” Richard Aylor, a senior from Roanoke and the student body president, said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the opening of Elm Hall, which will be home to 116 students.
“Elm Hall is showing the promise of better buildings to come, and I look forward to seeing more buildings in the coming years,” Aylor said Wednesday.
The building features roomy double-occupancy rooms with private bathrooms, a spacious kitchen and shared living areas, and even plans to supply students with a DVD player and video game systems along with the flat-screen TV already mounted on the wall.
Aylor said residents of the brand new building are describing it as “luxurious, roomy and fancy.”
Nikki Greco, a senior from Radford, Va., said her room is “snazzy.”
Jimmy Whited, director of housing for the college, said the mostly pre-assembled structure arrived on trucks and went up in a matter of four days; then, work crews added the brick exterior, connected the internal components, completed interior details and landscaping, a process that took about four months.
Among the future projects planned for the campus are another new dormitory, complete renovation of two existing dormitories, a new field house at the college athletic stadium, a new arts center and a project to improve the campus entrance and infrastructure.
The hope is that a rural development loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will cover the $30 million up-front cost of those projects with federal economic stimulus funds, said College President Rosalind Reichard, who anticipates a decision on the loan in September.
Reichard said Emory & Henry also is examining potential uses for land the college owns beside Interstate 81’s Exit 26, including a possible site for the medical school that King College in Bristol is seeking to build in the area, or some other educational use.
Completed so far in a college master plan that Reichard said spans 20 years are the $10 million renovation of two historic campus buildings, a $2.5 million stadium upgrade, and a series of smaller building upgrades.
She said Emory & Henry’s academic programs also have been revised and expanded since she was named president in 2006.
She said the college hasn’t seen a building boom on this scale since the 1950s and ’60s, and it’s driven by both the need to make improvements and the need to expand.
In a recession, Reichard said, the college is undertaking the series of projects “in a measured way,” but planning for the future is an important priority.
“We’ve got to have a long-term plan,” Reichard said, “because if we don’t invest in Emory & Henry College now, what does that mean for our future students?”
At the same time, she said, the students, faculty and college itself are helping to address short-term needs in the community that have been brought on by tough economic times.
But Reichard said the college leadership is also looking far into the future.
In praising the progress toward that long-term vision Wednesday, board of Trustees Chairman John Eldridge called the school “a beacon of excellence.”
Calling the campus master plan “a living document,” Reichard said she’s certain that, when all the current plans are complete, there will be more.
dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701
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