Free standing campus 'symbol of higher education'

By Terry Witt
Staff Writer

Dr. Charles Dassance, president of Central Florida Community College, said Monday that building the first ever free-standing community college campus in Levy County would send a message about the importance of higher education.

Dassance, who paid a visit to the existing CFCC Levy County Center in a Chiefland, is part of the campaign to raise $1.5 million locally to be used as matching funds for constructing the first two-story building on the new campus.

“I can’t think of a more important symbol than having a college in a community,” Dassance said. “A free standing facility sends a much more powerful message about the importance of higher education.”

The campaign to raise local contributions for the new college campus north of Chiefland has been taking place for many months. Donors like dairyman Ron St. John and Luther Drummond are among the local business people who have contributed to the $871,000 raised thus far.

Jack and Loy Ann Mann donated the site of the future campus, a forested parcel between Chiefland and Fanning Springs off U.S. 19. The hardwood forest stands between the highway and the Nature Coast Trail. The college is negotiating to buy additional adjoining land. The eventual plan is for a 41-acre campus.

The college and its local supporters hope to raise the $1.5 million by Feb 1 in time for the Florida Legislature to match those funds dollar for dollar. College officials are scheduling meetings with local families that may have an interest in making donations to the fund raising campaign.

Central Florida Community College has served Levy County since 1958. An educational center was established in 1982.

In 1991, the Levy County School Board and CFCC entered into an agreement allowing the college to administer the adult general education programs and college credit and continuing education programs. The education center was first located in Bronson but was moved in 1993 to the Chiefland location in 14,000 square feet of rented space in a shopping center.

The Levy Center offers an adult general education program, continuing education courses, corporate training classes, and college credit courses leading to associate degrees. The college credit program gives students an opportunity to complete an Associate in Arts degree in two years through classes at the center and in Ocala. The college also offers educational programs over the Internet.

Dassance said the shopping center has served well as an educational center for CFCC. Once a student enters the front door, the shopping center outside disappears from view and the student finds himself or herself in a college atmosphere.

But constructing a building that looks like a college institution, like the one CFCC would like to build north of Chiefland, is the ultimate goal, Dassance said. The two-story brick building would have white columns framing the entrance. It would look like a quality community college on the outside and inside. But it will take a $1.5 million local effort to get that done.

The new college campus would operate must like it does now, except it will be free standing. Over time, as the student population and the county population grow, course offerings for students will expand and more degree programs will come into being, according to Dassance.

“What will happen there will depend on how quickly we can grow the enrollment, Dassance said.

The fund raising campaign for a new campus comes at a time when a private hospital is about to be constructed in Chiefland, and Progress Energy Florida is proposing to build two nuclear reactors near Inglis.

If Suncoast Parkway II is constructed through Citrus County it would add traffic to U.S. 19. The four-laning of U.S. 27A and U.S. 27 from Chiefland to Ocala is already ramping up traffic loads in north Chiefland.

The college is aware of the approaching growth. Dassance said a new college campus would be a quality addition.

“It’s an investment in the future of the community,” Dassance said. “We’re asking people to invest in what this community could be.”