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Gateway Mulls Future
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Business New Haven
4/30/2001
By: Linda Mele
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Earlier this year the state Bonding Commission approved $1.7 million to finance renovations and improvements to classrooms, labs, continuing education, art studios and restrooms at the Long Wharf campus of Gateway Community College in New Haven.
GCC is one of 12 community colleges in Connecticut and one of the few with multiple campuses. GCC's other campus is at 88 Bassett Road in North Haven, site of the former North Haven Junior High School.
It's also one of the state's institutes of higher learning that needs to expand, but exactly where that expansion should take place - Long Wharf, North Haven or another site altogether - has been the topic of much debate.
Until the state's Department of Higher Education and the GCC board decided that the focus of that expansion should be the Long Wharf campus, some touted the former Macy's building in downtown New Haven as an ideal location for the school, following the example of Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, which moved into the vacant Lafayette Plaza complex that went belly-up as a proposed retail mall.
Supporters of that move noted that HCC has thrived at its new location in downtown Bridgeport - and that Gateway might do the same.
Nevertheless, “The mayor [John DeStefano Jr.] supports our decision to remain and expand at Long Wharf,” says GCC dean of administration Louis D'Antonio.
Says State Sen. Martin Looney (D-11), a member of the state Bonding Commission, “The improvements to the classrooms and labs should go a long way towards upgrading the academic programs at the college. The Gateway expansion program may cost as much as $60 million.
Nevertheless. the Gateway expansion project is still in the planning stages, D'Antonio says, and approval for it is still in committee.
“We have a basic education-facilities plan which is essentially a wish list, but we don't have any schematics,” D'Antonio says. “A completed design is probably about a year to 18 months away.”
College officials say that 4,131 students are enrolled at both campuses for the spring semester and the total yearly enrollment for all sessions - fall, spring, summer, credit, non-credit and certificate - is about 16,000 students.
Of that number, 40 percent are males and about 60 percent females; 56.1-percent are Caucasian, 20.8-percent are African-American; and 11.4 are categorized as Asian/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans or “other.” About 30 percent of Gateway students are New Haveners.
“The Long Wharf campus is currently at capacity,” GCC spokesman Evelyn Cernades says, “[and] as the college continues to meet the needs of the community with the development of new programs in biotechnology, business and health technology, new facilities and more classroom space is required.”
GCC offers some 70 academic programs that can culminate in either associate's degrees or certificates of completion. Courses are offered on a full- or part-time basis during the day, in the evening or on Saturdays.
“Because the state's pool of high school graduates is growing, we expect college enrollment to climb until 2006,” says DHE Commissioner Valerie Lewis. “Fortunately, our public colleges are well-positioned to handle growth in the short-term since investments in facilities and staff have risen significantly over the years despite fewer students.”
“Unifying the two sites would help save scarce resources,” D'Antonio says, “but such a project, if approved right now by the legislature, wouldn't become reality for two or three years.”
“Creating a better learning environment at a community college is indeed a priority use of state bond funds,” Looney adds.
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