The Carroll Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) campus has seen the largest increase in enrollment of all campuses over the past few years. Provost, Joel Lundstrom, says they are really excited to ride that trend and continue offering the best educational choices in state-of-the-art facilities. Toward this aim, Lundstrom said they began the dirt work late last week on a new $4.2 million expansion.
In fact, enrollment in DMACC”s welding program is setting records this year and some of this additional space will be allocated to that area of study.
The 11,700-square-foot expansion is being constructed on the northeast corner of the property, near the automotive education area. Lundstrom says this will be a dramatic new look for DMACC.
A new computer lab will be included and accommodate a broad range of students. Plans allow for a new exhibition area, where Lundstrom says they can bring feature speakers and other educational opportunities to the community. This will overlook the greenspace and can do double duty as a lounge area for students and staff when not being utilized for programming. Lundstrom says they expect significant work yet this fall, inside work over the winter and to have the space in use next August. As for DMACC’s plans for students this fall and a return to classes during a pandemic, Lundstrom says they have been working on this since March.
The significant increases in cleaning protocols include the school and dorms. They are also conducting their own contact tracing; reaching out to everyone if there has been an exposure.
