FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, August 12, 2011

Contact:  Robert Preston, Jr.,
              912.260.4276
              robert.preston@sgc.edu

SGC Begins Classes with New Dining Hall, Programs of Study

Three and a half months isn’t a long time. But for South Georgia College students, it’s long enough for the campus to have undergone some significant changes. When students return to campus for fall classes on Monday, Aug. 15, SGC will look like a very different place.

Since 2007, a great deal of progress has taken place at SGC. Over 200,000 square feet of building space has been added, and the center of student life has been centralized to the southwest portion of campus. This fall, students will enjoy a new dining hall, which has been re-located from Engram Hall to a new facility all its own. In 1927, the College constructed a dining hall that was turned into classroom space in 1995. For 15 years, the building was home to the Nursing/IT programs. Now, due to the unprecedented growth SGC has experienced years, the building will once again house the dining hall.

Before the building could return to a dining room, it had to undergo a stunning facelift. The $6.5 million renovation preserved the historical character of the building while blending the facility with SGC’s newer, more modern look. The building is much more than just a dining room; it also houses a snack bar and SGC’s spirit store, where students may purchase needed school supplies, snacks and college apparel. The Atkinson-Coffee Economic Development Authority and the SGC Foundation funded the project; no state monies were used to renovate the dining hall. The facility can seat 292 students, and was designed to expand in the future as the campus continues to grow.

Engram Hall, where students used to dine, is currently undergoing a renovation of its own to modernize that historic facility and make it a more efficient and student-friendly space. Enrollment services, which, along with the dining hall, called Engram home, has moved to Richey Hall and will remain there until the Engram project is completed. Once finished, Engram Hall will be a one-stop shop for all things enrollment, including Admissions, Housing and Financial Aid.

Other changes at SGC include a new Health and Human Performance degree and a mission change, which makes South Georgia a state college that may offer bachelor’s degrees. The first bachelor’s degree offered at SGC will be a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing, which is scheduled to begin Fall 2012. “This has truly been a summer of progress at South Georgia College. Our partners – Ambling University Development Group, Hendessi and Associates, Juneau Construction Company, and Lord Aeck and Sargent – have done a tremendous job of finishing our dining hall. And our academic leadership team has worked overtime on our internal projects to have everything ready when our students return. Once again, students will enjoy a brand new facility when they arrive, and they will have the opportunity to pursue an exciting new program of study. This is shaping up to be another banner year at South Georgia College,” says Dr. Virginia Carson, SGC President.
 

# # # # 

About South Georgia College

South Georgia College (www.sgc.edu) was founded in 1906 and is located in Douglas, Ga. The college's environment gives students exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty. With over 20 majors and transfer opportunities, South Georgia College provides the finest education possible to the citizens of its service area.