Durham College receives multi-million dollar investment from feds for new building

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

Durham College has received the largest ever contribution to a single project in its half-century history.

Celina Caesar-Chavannes, MP for Whitby, was on hand at Durham College’s north Oshawa campus to announce the federal government would be contributing $13 million toward the college’s Centre for Collaborative Education (CFCE).

This announcement follows a provincial contribution of $22 million announced in April, bringing the total to $35 million in government funding toward the estimated $40-million building.

“(It) is just incredible,” says Don Lovisa, Durham College’s president.

“It relieves a lot of pressure for us to try and raise money and it allows us just to go full speed ahead.”

The new building, which is set to replace the college’s aging Simcoe Building, the oldest structure on campus, is quickly making its way through the planning stages with the construction and architecture tenders already being awarded. Initial work is set to begin this fall with an anticipated completion date of 2018.

The CFCE is set to become a state-of-the art facility on campus, complete with high-tech labs and classrooms designed to connect students with institutions across the globe. It will also include new entrepreneurial spaces, including the Spark Centre, and will expand research opportunities for students, a release explains.

“(It) will provide students with the resources and skills to develop their own start-up ideas, launch new companies and succeed in the knowledge economy,” Caesar-Chavannes said.

“That is truly remarkable because we do not live within a four-block radius, we can not be building walls, we need to be building bridges and we’re demonstrating that today.”

On top of the high-tech upgrades, Lovisa says the new space will provide something that is very much lacking on campus right now: a space for students to just kick back and relax.

“Yes, there’s classrooms and yes, there’s labs, but the main floor of the building, there’s all these places where students can just put their feet up,” he says, adding the new building will also come equipped with a “napping room” for those overworked students just looking for a brief period of shut-eye.

Lovisa envisions the new 75,000 square-foot building as becoming a “hub” for the many different groups on campus.

For Granville Anderson, the MPP for Durham who was also on hand for the announcement, the investment was about more than just the building.

“It’s about providing students with access to experiences they can make and also allow them to make new discoveries,” he says.

“It’s about building Durham College’s size, diversity and partnership to give students access to the best learning experience.”

According to a news release, Durham College will “soon” be launching a fundraising campaign to raise the additional $5 million required for the construction of the building.