Two new buildings for LSC-CyFair

A rendering of the student services building.

By BOB RUGGERIO
CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT
Two new buildings are being added to the Lone Star College-CyFair campus, 9191 Barker Cypress Road.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held March 11 for a 138,000-square-foot student services building and a 53,000-square-foot health science building.
The science building will be on the north side of campus and the student services building will be on the south side.
The two buildings will add several dozen classrooms, labs and faculty office spaces to the campus.
Funds for the new buildings came from a 2008 bond referendum.
Bob Williams, the college's vice president of administrative services, said the buildings were chosen to meet an immediate need.
The current student services building served us well until we reached about 9,000 students," he said, but our enrollments now far exceed that. The new building will be twice the size of the current one, and will include a large, multi-purpose teaching theater."
It also will house registration, advising, counseling and financial-aid offices.
The highlight of the health sciences building will be seven new labs for students taking basic science courses as well as those in the more-involved nursing, sonography, radiography and echocardiography areas.
Chemistry professor Ann van Heerden said faculty members were encouraged to participate with ideas and advice at all stages of the planning.
Van Heerden said the new building will provide more vent-type hoods to whisk away volatile chemical fumes that occur during lab experiments.
Plus, the addition of sinks, gas outlets and vacuums will allow students to work in smaller groups, and she can increase the types of experiments assigned.
Warner Bair, assistant professor of biology, said the new building will allow professors to engage the student in more hands-on learning techniques.
It will help students master the material better and help ensure their success," Bair said.
And that's great news for biology major Meredith Thibodeaux.
I'm very excited about the new buildings, she said, and that the classrooms are going to be specifically designed for science classes."
Nationwide, the ranks of community college students are swelling, Williams said, which is reflected throughout the Lone Star College system.
This is due to a combination of factors, such as the state of the economy, students continuing to live at home and the rising tuition costs at larger universities.
All of these things have had a major impact on our growth," Williams said. But one of our original goals was always to be the college of choice for residents in the Cy-Fair area."