NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Delgado Community College is preparing to hold classes for the first time at a new campus in the Desire area of New Orleans.
Delgado’s Sidney Collier Campus is the location of the former Sidney Collier Technical College. It will open to Delgado students in August, nine years after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the former school.
In addition to helping to revitalize an area still struggling to recover from the August 2005 storm, the Sidney Collier Campus will offer to residents of the Desire and New Orleans East areas programs that have never been available in that part of the city, college officials said.
The New Orleans Advocate reports (https://bit.ly/1juSnO7 students will be able to work toward associate degrees and transfer to four-year institutions, earn certificates of technical study or technical diplomas, take non-credit and English-as-a-second-language courses, and prepare for high-school equivalency diploma testing.
They said the school’s curriculum will be aligned with workforce development and community needs and interests, including health care, “green” jobs such as solar energy installation, construction, auto repair and computer skills.
Delgado absorbed the Collier site in April 2010 when the Louisiana Technical College Region One merged with Delgado.
Before Katrina, 1,000 students were enrolled at Sidney Collier Technical College.
The new facility cost $21 million to build, with $12 million coming from the state and $9 million coming from FEMA.
Work on the campus, which began last May, is taking part in two phases, with the first phase, funded by state dollars, to be completed by the time classes begin in August.
The remainder of the work, paid for with the federal funds, will wrap up in 2015.
The campus design includes space for future expansion.
___
Information from: The New Orleans Advocate, https://www.neworleansadvocate.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.