Construction an the new Scotland County campus for Richmond Community College should begin by March, according to Sharon Morrissey, president of the college.

"You will see this building begin within eight weeks," Morrissey said to applause at the monthly Scotland County Democratic Woman's meeting in Laurinburg. "This is the first building on the Scotland County campus, it definitely is not the last," Morrissey said. "Hopefully in the not too far future, we will be planning the next."

Morrissey said advertising for construction bids will begin by Feb. 1 and the school should have notice to proceed by mid-March, when they will hold a large groundbreaking ceremony.

The projected move-in date for the college is January 2010.

The 17,000 square-foot building, which has a $3.37 million budget, is expected to house three general use classrooms, two computer labs, a certified nursing assistant classroom and laboratory, and a licensed practical nurse classroom and laboratory.

RCC is then planning on moving its licensed practical nursing program from Hamlet to Laurinburg.

The community college will keep its associate degree in nursing at its Hamlet campus.

There will also be a a vocational and industrial training bay the college can use for continuing education classes

"We will have regular offices for student services," Morrissey said. Scotland County students will be able to register and pay for classes, buy books and meet with their advisors without going over to the Hamlet campus.

There is also planned a small library with online access to main library

The library will be directed towards the nursing programs.

Morrissey will also have an office at the Scotland campus.

"I need to be able to spend time in Laurinburg and Scotland County," the college president said. "I need to be able to get to know the people in this area"

She plans on spending at least one day a week in Laurinburg.

After the new facility is opened, the adult basic education programs, currently housed in the Purcell and Speller buildings along with other programs, will be consolidated to the Purcell building, with the Speller Building being given to either the county or the state.

Other programs at the old campus with be shifted over to the new building.

Morrissery also had a more sobering topic to talk tot he group about - the fate of community colleges in a weakening economy.

"The North Carolina Community College presidents, there are 58 community colleges in North Carolina, we were called to Raleigh for an emergency meeting to talk about the state budget crisis," Morrissery said.

"We have a very hard road ahead of us in the state of north carolina and our country," she said. "We all know that we are in the middle of a very deep recession. It is affecting our communities"

"The fiscal analysts we talked to in Raleigh told us it would take at least 12 to 18 months before it started turning around," Morrissey continued. "It will take many years to get back to where we were in 2007

She said that the state legislature will be making hard decisions on budget cuts for the new fiscal realities.

"I would not want to change places with any one of them right now," Morrissey said.

She remained hopeful, however, that Richmond Community College can adapt to the new environment, especially with retraining the work force and some initiatives president-elect Barack Obama has discussed for his incoming administration.

"He is talking about opportunities that community colleges will play a big role in achieving," Morrissey said.

he is emphasizing workforce education and training - what cc do

"He is emphasizing on emerging technologies to support alternative energies and to rebuild the United States power grid," Morrissey said. She explained that the current grid is out of date and is not as efficient as it can be with the nations power, nor is it sufficient enough to carry energy to the parts of the country that need it most.

"He is putting an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math to produce more scientists and engineers," the college president said. "He wants that to start at community colleges:

"He wants to increase the educational pathway from community college to university," she continued. "There are a lot of opportunities for us as a community college."

Morrissey discussed a meeting with Representative Larry Kissel and several other community college presidents about how the community college system can help spur economic development.

"We have people who canned be trained and can go to work," Morrissey said. "If we can get some of the Obama initiative money, we can do some training and get people back to work"

She said Kissell will work to get more money for RCC and for the community college system.

Alternative energy may become an integral part of RCC's future, Morrissey said. She said that Perdue supports alternative energy initiatives and Obama has talked about creating as many as five million new green jobs.

"We teach electronics classes now," Morrissey said. "We can easily adjust out curriculum so that we are training our elect students to work on photovoltaic cells. We can train technicians to build this new digital electricity power grid Obama wants to make happen."

She said these are just a few examples of what RCC can do in the coming years to adapt to the new political situation and help in the new economy.

Morrissey wasn't the only one talking to elected officials, however.