Artist's rendition of what the new Woodbridge campus building will look like. Courtesy of NOVA.

It was a moment of progressive change and long-awaited excitement as the participants in the Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge campus groundbreaking ceremony watched the beginning of the festivities in the campus theater. A moving opening speech by the Woodbridge campus provost, Dr. Sam Hill, welcomed the prestigious attendees and several key advocates who were involved in the process of making the addition of a new building at Woodbridge possible.

“A recent census confirmed that Prince William County is the fastest growing county in Northern Virginia over the last 10 years. For this reason, our growth and the growth of the Manassas campus is to be expected,” said Hill.

The building project, titled the Phase III Academic Building, has been in the plans since the early 1980s and, due to the various support of community leaders and legislators, it has now come to fruition.

The new building will be built behind the campus’ main building, Seefeldt, and will help the campus accommodate a growing number of students. Woodbridge campus currently has about 11,500 students enrolled, according to NOVA President Robert G. Templin Jr., in his speech for the groundbreaking.

The new building will boast nearly 84,000 square feet in extra classroom and lab space for the students and faculty, including a new 215-seat theater, a spacious lecture hall with space for 160 students, three science laboratories, a Cisco computer lab, 11 new instruction classrooms, open computer lounges, a photo studio, 35 new faculty offices and 12 rooms for group study.

Just to add icing to the architectural cake, the building will also include a new and improved cafeteria, an outdoor patio and will be the future home of the Woodbridge campus library. The architects at Grimm and Parker and the builders at Whiting Turner even included an environmentally-conscious aspect to the building’s design by including a geothermic heating and cooling system, with the intent that it will offset any changes to the environment.

However, knowing where the school started is just as important as planning its future.

Dr. Errico, who teaches history, gave a humorous history lesson about the humble beginnings of the Woodbridge campus, which began as a trailer on the grounds of a middle school. Errico said the college began in 1965 with only 767 registered students. Today, the college has approximately 78,000 students. The first building was built in Annandale in 1967. Woodbridge campus got its first “real” building in 1975.

“We have a hundred acres at Woodbridge campus,” said Errico, who didn’t just spout facts in his presentation. He had the audience laughing frequently with his stories of the campus’ beginnings and showed interesting and old-to-current photos of staff in dubious fashions on a large screen on the stage.

He joked about a time capsule being buried on campus, then said that a concrete ramp and building were built on top of it. He told the audience about a softball team early in the campus’ history only playing one game and everyone being on injured-reserve after that.

Then Errico showed a photo from what appeared to be a hunting trip with a hunter looking intensely in a rifle scope and aiming at its target. And with that image on the screen, he joked that the college had hired too many faculty early on and this was a way of scaling down.

After everyone stopped laughing at Errico’s jokes, President Templin stepped up and praised the campus’ accomplishments. He also spoke about the importance of education and how it will keep the economic sector growing in Prince William County.

Those viewing the ceremony were also treated to some words from Dr. James White, the chair for the NOVA College Board, Michael Wooten, the Prince William County representative for the college board and Dr. Glenn DuBois, the chancellor of the Virginia Community College System and Judith Theissen, the president of the Woodbridge campus Student Government Association and a staff reporter for NOVA Fortnightly. Each had a unique perspective, giving credit to various important individuals, and all held the unified theme of looking toward the future and how higher education will invariably play a role.

DuBois said, “Today, a college diploma is no longer the finish line.”

Following these speeches, comments, words of encouragement and thanks were given by those on the legislative end who played a pivotal role in passing the legislation and paperwork necessary to make this new Phase III building a reality. Speakers included Sen. Charles J. Colgan, who served as head of committees in the local area and who was significant in lobbying for the building addition, Chairman Corey A. Stewart of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, as well as several representatives of the Prince William County Legislative Delegation.

Stewart said there are approximately 411,000 residents of Prince William County. Many of them could be served by the two campuses NOVA has within its boundaries.

In speaking of the project finally coming together, Del. Scott Lingamfelter quoted Gen. George C. Marshall: “There’s no limit to the good you can do if you don’t care who gets credit.”

After the speeches, all in attendance left the theater and proceeded outside to the site of the actual groundbreaking by the campus pond, with the fanfare and humor of gold shovels with large bows and white, construction hard hats for those participating.

The weather was warm and sunny, adding to the enthusiasm for the day’s events.

One faculty member, math professor Tony Smith, expressed a very positive view on the addition of the Phase III building. “It will be a great addition to our campus. [It’s] going to be a beautiful, functional building. I’m very excited to see it happen. It’ll be great for the students.”

With the theme of the day being positive progression, one can only keep watching as NOVA campuses consistently grow. Watch out for the beginning of construction of the new building, which is slated to be completed by August 2012.

Article by Stephanie Tipple & KJ Mushung

By: NOVA Fortnightly Staff

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