Savannah State University has been approved for funding for a two College of Sciences and Technology buildings. The $20.5 million project received a green light for its second installment by the Georgia state legislature in their latest session.

The project consists of two related portions. The university purchased property on Livingston Avenue where a new marine sciences laboratory facility will be constructed. The property was formerly a banquet hall known as the Italian Club. The existing building is slated for removal.

The acreage includes deep-water access, which will allow marine sciences faulty and students to depart and return at any time, with ship-based research and instruction not dictated by tidal schedules. The building will provide approximately 17,000 square feet of new space with state of the art amenities.

Carol Pride, Ph.D., chair of the department of marine and environmental sciences, notes that the expansion is much needed to facilitate the growing program. The new building is slated to include laboratories for dolphin survey, necropsy, fish ecology, environmental toxicology, ocean acidification, coastal biophysics, instrumentation, and more.

It will also allow the research being done by professors, postdoctoral investigators and current SSU students to be housed in one place with dedicated, long-term lab set-ups. Additionally, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has an office on campus. The new plan includes a suite of offices and instructional facilities in the new building to support NOAA’s mission.

On the main campus, there will be a new two-story, 30,000 square foot building to house engineering technology and chemistry laboratories. The building will be comprised of labs and faculty space.

Civil engineering technology will gain labs for surveying, construction materials, solids structures and fluids. Electrical engineering technology will have learning space for digital systems, electronics, and power systems. 

The chemistry program will also be expanded and included in this new building. The planned site is near Drew Griffith and Kennedy Fine Arts building.

Current projections expect groundbreaking to be sometime in early 2016.