News 12 at 11 o'clock -- March 17, 2010

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- In the midst of budget cuts and a tough economy, Augusta State University leaders are looking to expand their school.

President William Bloodworth considers the plan Augusta State's "Master Plan", where they are looking to add another section of campus on Wrightsboro Road.

Times are tight though and growth costs money, but it's up to lawmakers to sign the check, Bloodworth said.

Over the past few years, enrollment on campus has skyrocketed almost to capacity. A big change for business junior Daniel Meadows who said the school only had around 6,000 students when he came as a freshman.

Now officials say the school has 7,000 students, something freshman Cody Sheron knows like a book.

"All your classes are full," he said. "There aren't too many empty desks until about midterm when people start dropping classes."

Augusta State Coordinator for Academic and Master Planning Kathy Hamrick said the school is at capacity and in the next five years if they don't expand they will be struggling.

In the planning they plan to take over land on the north side of Wrightsboro Road from the Newman Tennis Center to Jackson Road.

"We've got to look to the future," Hamrick said.

But many skeptics wonder how they can do so in a time where the state is proposing budget cuts to the school.

"I know some people are saying well, 'Why are you doing it now?'" Hamrick said. "We've got to look to the future of Augusta State."

The plans started in 2004, according to President Bloodworth, just recently Hamrick sat in on a commission meeting concerning the possibility of acquiring the Municipal Golf Course. The possibility is only possible if the city decides to place the course on the market, Hamrick said.

"We only went to the meeting because we are going to be here one way or another," Hamrick said. "Augusta State is going to bring this area up."

But to do so, the Governor must approve bond funding from the state. The Board of Regents has recommended $1.8 million to the Governor for the design of the $28 million building project, which would build the College of Education and the Department of Nursing, Bloodworth said.

Bloodworth said the money comes from a different pot than what could be cut from the schools programs.

"When you're talking about facilities you're talking about general obligation bonds sold by the state of Georgia to build those facilities not state appropriations," Bloodworth said.

Bloodworth said the expansion could meet the need for expansion of the university for 50 years.

Now members of the faculty and students sit and wait for answers, but if legislators don't approve the state funding, it leaves a growing campus with little room to do so, Bloodworth said.

If they aren't able to acquire any of the land involved in the plan, Bloodworth said they would have to build upward on the land at Christenberry Fieldhouse.