New building at CCU houses diverse academic programs

Dan Ennis, dean of the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts, marveled when he spotted an empty office as he walked through the new Academic Classroom and Office Building II that was dedicated with an official ribbon-cutting on Wednesday, Sept. 20.

“In my 18 years here at Coastal, I’ve never seen an empty office. Usually Coastal Carolina is running to catch up with growth, but maybe we’re caught up now. In 2017, Coastal got offices for appropriate growth. This is what a mature campus looks like,” said Ennis. “This is a milestone!”

The 52,600-square-foot building will house several disciplines – business, computer science, English German, journalism, public relations, public health, sociology and University 110 classes, to name a few, serving 2,800 students taking classes there. The state-of-the-art facility has a glass-walled Information Technology Services headquarters, a wall-sized screen for videos and television, and an already popular self-serve, soft-serve frozen yogurt machine.

It provides 16 classrooms, more than 100 faculty and staff offices, three study rooms, multiple open collaborative spaces, two conference room, an Aramark store and more.

“Coastal believes every space should be a learning space,” said CCU President David A. DeCenzo. He went on to thank the voters of Horry County for the penny sales tax that funds K-12 and higher education building construction and which has made the University’s huge growth possible. “This is where those pennies are being spent,” he said.

Michael Roberts, dean of the College of Science, applauded the “blending of disciplines and the fruitful interactions that occur as a consequence of this blending.”

Cost of construction was $18 million. Shawn Godwin was the project manager.