On Oct. 13 the Board of Regents approved a budget of $4.03 million to VSU for a southeastern expansion of the Bailey Science Center, which will include a 75-seat dry laboratory and several classrooms.
“The large dry laboratory will allow more access to the lab portion of science courses,” Phil Gunter, interim vice president of academic affairs, said. “This should help ensure timely graduation opportunities as VSU continues to grow in enrollment.”
According to Gunter, construction for the Bailey extension will begin Sept. 2011 and end June 2012. The Bailey add-on will not be a separate building but, will be attached from the southeast side of Bailey, going towards West Hall.
The decision to build the Bailey extension was made last spring by several VSU department heads in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“The 75-seat lab will be ideal for certain courses, particularly many of those science courses students take to satisfy their core requirements,” Connie Richards, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said. “The 75-seat lab will allow us to serve the same number of students we currently serve in three, 24-person labs. It’s a matter of efficiency of scheduling.”
Although the new lab will help accommodate VSU’s growing amount of students, the labs in the main building will still be utilized for upper division research.
The new classrooms and labs will also house new faculty to accommodate VSU’s growing student population.