Nursing building update: The final architectural drawings should be completed soon. And while construction costs are rising at a faster pace than we imagined because of last year's hurricanes, we're still raising more private dollars to ensure a top-quality facility for our nursing students. Groundbreaking is still on schedule for this summer.

STEM Center update: We plan to have some exciting news to announce soon about a major gift for our Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Center building project. As with the Nursing building, construction costs have skyrocketed, causing us to raise the bar for our funding needs. Since the STEM Center will be built with private and federal funds only, our Development staff has been working overtime to reach our new goal between $7 million and $8 million. If all goes as expected, we hope to begin breaking ground on the STEM Center shortly after groundbreaking on the Nursing building.

SACS team visit: Many of you are already preparing for the on-site re-accreditation visit by our Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) review team. I appreciate all the extra effort everyone is putting forth to make sure our visitors have all the information they need. The team is expected to arrive April 11. Watch the Tech Times for more details about our re-accreditation efforts and our quality enhancement plan.