More good news! On April 29, 2013, NJ Secretary of Higher Education Rochelle Hendricks sent the state Legislature a list of 176 higher education capital construction projects, including more than $19 million worth of projects for Essex County College, in order to start the process of releasing the funds to the state's colleges and universities. This includes the $750 million in state bonds from the Building Our Future Bond Act referendum question which NJ voters overwhelmingly approved last November, plus money from the reauthorization of four other higher education funding programs for a combined total of more than $1.3 billion. Our award of $19,103,490 is the largest for any two-year college in the state. These funds will be used to improve our academic, physical and technological infrastructure and position us to provide, for our students, a high quality education in a most competitive environment. The capital improvement projects will span both the main Newark campus, West Essex campus in West Caldwell, and the Police Academy in Cedar Grove.

The projects include:

• Project #1:  First Year Success-Specialized Classrooms for Rapid Completion of Developmental Coursework
  (Main Campus)
• Project #2:  West Essex Campus Restructuring (West Essex Campus)
• Project #3:  ECC Information Commons (All Campuses)
• Project #4:  Health Sciences Simulation Laboratory (Main Campus)
• Project #5: Foundation for Instructional Technology (Main Campus

Our success in this important endeavor is due to the large-scale collaborative of the College community. Thank you for your role in help to make this historic higher education bond act a reality.