GNTC readies new Catoosa campus
Georgia Northwestern Technical College will open the doors to its 55,000square-foot collegiate facility Catoosa County campus in a few weeks, just in time for the fall semester.
“It’s an industrial and medical education center,” school President Pete McDonald said of the new Ringgold campus. “We think the students are really going to enjoy it.”
The two-story building located on Alabama Highway/ state Highway 151 will offer a variety of fields of study. includes community rooms, classrooms, tech labs, industrial working area spaces and labs, a library, books store, administrative offices, conference rooms and faculty offices.
“Our two large industrial labs — where the metrotronics education will be — they’re already wired up for everything. We’re just waiting on some of the equipment to be put in,” McDonald said.
Equipment currently located at other GNTC campuses will be moved to the Ringgold location between now and when the fall semester begins in August, he said.
The metrotronics lab also includes a hydraulic pressure crane so instructors can set up problems in the system for students to diagnose.
“It will teach them (the students) all the components of a hydraulic system to apply in industry lifting systems and things like that,” McDonald said.
Recently the school hosted a number of area high school seniors on a little preview and walk-through of the campus.
“The high school seniors really liked it,” McDonald said. “They were excited to be able to come over and be the first people to really see the building. It gave them a lot to think about as they look towards college.”
Not only is every room in the building wired for inter- net and school network use, projection tools are included so instructors and students can sync up in the classroom for presentations.
The school has also gone a long way in helping accommodate students, McDonald said.
There is a lounge, equipped with refrigerators and microwave ovens for student use, a library that includes work stations and small group study rooms, and the majority of class rooms have furnishing s that can be rearranged for conferences.
“Everything is light and easy to move if we need to,” McDonald said.
Not only is the new campus designed to accomadate students, it is designed to attract students getting started with their college careers.
McDonald said a lot of the courses offered at the school deal with a new wave of inclassroom instruction where students work in pairs or groups.
“Our courses have a lot of team projects, so some of our tables are designed for team activities so multiple students can work together on projects in the classroom…. It’s a new way of teaching,” McDonald said. “We’ll also have teleconferencing between our campuses.”
McDonald and the whole staff are very excited about the new campus, which has come a long way since its late 2014 groundbreaking ceremony.
A grand opening ceremony is slated for Sept. 19.
“It’s turned out great and we’re proud of it,” McDonald said. “We think the students will really appreciate it.”