Though still awaiting approval from the Department of Defense, plans for the proposed EPCC Fort Bliss campus may change to accommodate the rapid influx of troops over the next four years.
“We will be fazing in about 3,000 soldiers a year until we reach a total post population of 37,000 in 2012,” said Fort Bliss Public Affairs Officer Jean Offutt. “Including their family members, it will reach nearly 100,000.”
The current EPCC facility at Fort Bliss, which is shared with UTEP and Park University, is equipped to accommodate just a few hundred students.
“The occupancy is between 200 to 300 students at maximum,” said Joyce Ritchey, instructional dean of arts, communication and social sciences at Fort Bliss.
“Since classes are made available to civilians and active military, a great deal of our students are dependents, rather than soldiers.”
The facility has not experienced
overcrowding due to high enrollment but may in the near future if not relocated, said Ritchey.
“Currently, we have only 117 students, so space is not a problem,” she said. “But it would be a problem when we get high enrollment, which I would expect with the addition of 11,000 soldiers to Fort Bliss.”
Though EPCC’s proposal for a new campus, which would accommodate approximately 4,500 students, has received support from many, including Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and former Fort Bliss Commander Maj. Gen. Robert P. Lennox, it is still pending since proposed June 1 of last year.
“If our proposal is approved, the campus will be built near the corner of Global Reach and Montana, where there is current planning for approximately 1,500 new homes to accommodate new troops,” said Executive Assistant to the president, Ernest Roberts. “Because the city’s growing eastward, we also expect a lot of civilian El Paso residents to enroll.”
A design for the campus has yet to be drawn but is slated to follow that of the Northwest campus in order to allow for expansion, if needed.
“We will propose to the architect to use the Northwest model, because that format is ideal,” said Roberts. “Northwest is configured in a semi-circle so that permanent buildings, rather than portables, and parking can be built in and around the perimeter. If we receive the full acreage, we should have the space to expand if necessary.”
The time in which it will take to receive approval to begin the steps toward construction is uncertain and may take years.
“The proposal is traveling through various levels of the DOD. Because the DOD is a large, complex bureaucracy with many levels, it can take quite a long time,” Roberts said.
“It is not terribly unusual for a proposal to wait two years for approval.”
Roberts expressed confidence of the proposal being approved but said the sooner, the better.
“We are pushing hard for approval because we understand how long it takes to design and build a campus,” said Roberts.
“Hopefully, it will be built by 2011.”
Congressman Silvestre Reyes has been helpful in seeing that the proposal is decided upon by the DOD in a timely fashion, said Roberts.
“Reyes says he’ll do what he can to make sure it moves up the chain and doesn’t sit there. We have folks to help speed up the process,” Roberts said.
He also said funding for the proposed new campus is available now, however, it may be some time until it is put to use.
“The bond money we have available to construct is sitting in the bank,” said Roberts.
“We’re ready to start turning dirt, but these things take awhile,” he said. “We’re going to have to be patient.”
