Orangeville introduces retractable walls on campus

Posted on 03. Feb, 2010 by juanantonio in News

CATHERINE LABELLE
NEWS REPORTER

Walls have been raised in to response to student and program growth at Orangeville’s temporary campus within the Alder Street Recreation Complex.
Since 2007, about $300,000 has been spent on infrastructure at this location, including wireless Internet, tables, chairs, offices and the creation of a computer lab, said Joe Andrews, director of Orangeville Campus.
“Quite a substantial amount of money has been invested into our temporary campus.” The latest investment, an acoustic retractable wall, runs about 14 metres long and 2.5 metres high splitting a large lecture hall into two classrooms, said Janice Boyd the project co-ordinator for facilities management.
The project, costing $35,000, was completed last month and undertaken to create additional space to accommodate a growing student body, said Andrews.
The present enrolment of about 200 is expected to grow to about 260 this coming fall with the introduction of an interior decorating program and new students entering other programs, he said.
“It makes sense for us to grow one program at a time and have each one of those programs be successful.”
The growth of the student population is the leading consideration in moving forward with the construction of the permanent campus on Veteran’s Way, said Rani Dhaliwal, vice-president of finance and administration.
“We need to build a core student base in order to be able to support a new building.” Specific targets of 450 to 600 students have been set before building is triggered, said Andrews.
“We can build a cohort, then we need to make sure we can get the funding, and that is a bit out of our hands,” said Dhaliwal.
To date no government funding has been secured, she said.
Humber has set aside $10 million for the project, but will require a lot more money, perhaps as much as $30 million to $40 million, said Andrews.