A $100,000 grant will help speed construction of the new Redfield Campus in Galena.
The grant from the Robert Z. Hawkins Foundation will go toward construction of the main campus building.
"We are all but a couple of hundred thousand dollars short of what we need to complete the building," said Kendall Inskip, director of development for the University of Nevada, Reno. "We want to open the building by fall 2002 for classes for up to 1,000 students."
Basic utilities have been completed on the Mount Rose site of the campus.
"We do have completion on all the utilities and all the infrastructure, but the state has to put together the final bid for the building," she said.
Construction is expected to begin on the $15.4 million structure later this year.
"The Robert Z. Hawkins Computer Lab will provide students of the three educational partners the access they will need to fully support skill-building in their studies," associate vice president and dean of the university's college of extended studies Neal Furguson said.
Tutoring and academic support functions will be a focal point of the center, with enough space to accommodate 130 to 150 students."
William Wallace, representing the Hawkins Foundation, said he hopes the center will be helpful to students of Western Nevada Community College, the University of Nevada, Reno and Truckee Meadows Community College.
"The construction of this facility will mean so much to the educational capabilities of the university, as well as Truckee Meadows and Western Nevada community colleges," Wallace said. "The center is a place of great potential for the young people of Northern Nevada."
The Redfield campus is just off the Mount Rose Highway in Galena.
More than $10 million is earmarked for the construction of the campus from the Nell J. Redfield Foundation and the Nevada Legislature.
"A significant portion of the center's programming will be related to teaching," Ferguson said. "Our hope is that with significant interest from area businesses, the Hawkins Computer Lab will be a hub for lectures and demonstrations focused on new technologies."
Inskip said the Redfield Campus' central location will permit students from all over Western Nevada to attend classes.
"People can go there from different places," she said. "We don't want to duplicate anything being offered at any of the other campuses."
She said they already have four or five students signed on for a bachelor's degree in construction science, the first of several work-related degree programs slated to be offered through Redfield.
"We already have degree-seeking students for a program we're not even marketing," she said.
www.dce.unr.edu/redfield
