By KELLY BROWN | Guest Writer

APSU campus expands alongside its student body as construction continues.

Although undesirable weather conditions have delayed construction, Director of Facilities Planning and Projects, Al Westerman, believes construction will get back on schedule.

The construction projects include the Chemical Engineering Technology facility, the new undergraduate dorm and construction on the Morgan University Center.

The CETF project is expected to be finished by Fall 2010. The undergraduate dorm is scheduled to be completed about the middle of the 2011 summer semester and open for business in Fall 2011.

The construction in the basement of the MUC is expected to be completed in early March and usable before the end of March, according to Andy Kean, Director of University Facilities.

Once the CETF project is completed, students will be able to train for an Associate’s Degree in chemical engineering technology preparing them to work at the Hemlock Semiconductor plant that will be constructed at the Commerce Park in Clarksville. Construction worker Walter Robinson said, “It’s not big enough. There’s not enough work. [I’m] glad for the work but its not big enough.”

The plant is expected to employ 1,000 construction project workers during the course of the construction. When the construction is complete, the Semiconductor plant will employ more than 500 people.

The new undergraduate dorm scheduled to be open to students in the Fall 2011 semester will house 416 students, according to Joe Mills, Director of Housing/Residence Life and Dining Services.

Mills also stated the new dorm would be all double rooms with a private bath/shower in each room, a small cooking area for each wing, and study areas on each floor.

The MUC basement construction will add three new rooms with new furniture and equipment. These rooms will be available for events sometime in March. As with the other rooms in the MUC, these new rooms will be available to all of the APSU community and must be reserved.

According to Kean, the current available rooms in the MUC would be booked non-stop some nights as a result of growing enrollment at APSU.

The purpose of the additional rooms is to alleviate use of the MUC rooms on the third floor.

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