NorthWest Arkansas Community College

NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville is the state’s third-largest two-year school and its second-fastest growing, says Jim Lay, vice president of development. Enrollment at NWACC has grown by more than 300 percent since it opened in 1990 with 1,232 students.

NWACC currently has $8.2 million in projects that are either under way or will begin soon.

The projects include:

• A two-story, 54,000-SF expansion to the 115,000-SF Central Education Facility will be bid in July. Construction is expected to be completed around August 2001.

• Construction is expected to begin in March on a 5,600-SF maintenance building. The project is scheduled to be finished in July.

• Construction will begin in July or August on a work force development center. The building, which will be about 25,000 SF, is scheduled to be completed around July 2001.

• NWACC is working in a partnership with Mercy Health Center and Northwest Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute to construct two roads on campus at a total cost of about $590,000.

One of the roads will run north and south on the west side of campus and will connect the campus to Mercy Health Center and NARTI. The road will be named SE Eagle Way.

Another road, which will run east and west through the middle of campus, will be constructed and named Water Tower Road.

• NWACC has also purchased $1 million worth of land to the north of campus for future growth. The purchase was made possible by a gift from Pauline Whitaker, the most generous donor in the college’s history.