ICC Invests in Infrastructure
EAST PEORIA — In the past two months, the Illinois Central College Board of Trustees has approved two different expenditures that add up to a bit over seven million dollars. The two expenditures laid out are renovations for Arbor Hall at North Campus and a change in equipment at document services at the East Peoria campus.
The first of these expenditures, the Arbor Hall renovations, was approved at the December board of trustees meeting. According to Bruce Budde, the executive vice president of administration and finance, these renovations will be beneficial not only from a financial standpoint, but from a student perspective as well.
According to the expenditure report, the Arbor Hall renovation cost slightly under six million dollars. Budde said this “pretty significant” renovation will allow different services such as financial aid, testing centers and even child care to be housed within Arbor Hall.
“We’re also building out a lot of classrooms and adult education areas,” Budde said. “It’ll really update it… and really give the campus a feel of being modern and upgraded.”
Budde mentioned that this will be the biggest step in the Arbor Hall remodel. Later this year, the south wing of Arbor will be remodeled to help accommodate the dental program’s move from the Downtown Campus.
The second big expense, approved at the Jan. board of trustees meeting, is an equipment lease for document services with supplier Konica Minolta. This lease allowed for updated printers to be allocated across the East Peoria Campus and brought more high-tech equipment to document services.
“This will allow printing services to support the bookstore lab packets that students buy, as well as support the faculty and printing work they need to do,” Budde said, “This will also allow students access to color copies.”
“[The new machines] do better quality of work,” said Jill Kern, a student worker at document services, “I think it was a very wise shift.”
Although the expenditures may seem to restrict future spending, in the long run these changes will be more economical for Illinois Central College.
“With the copier purchases, we get better technology and better quality with lower costs,” Budde said. “In addition, we will be able to manage our utility bills more effectively [with the Arbor Hall remodel]. That design itself has a minimum energy conservation of 20 percent. So we know we are going to receive an upgrade of 20 percent efficiency.”
Kevin Roberts, director of construction and energy management, has stated that the Arbor Hall remodel has started on schedule. His hope is to have everything finished by Oct. 8.
Meanwhile, the transition to Konica Minolta is still in progress. Look for more updates on Arbor Hall and how the new copiers are being received in future editions.