The city is the only remaining partner AASU has out of five original partners in the Liberty Center campus and library project.
Bill Megathlin, assistant to AASU’s president, said he’s disappointed but understands it’s a bad time to be asking people for money.
“The message we’re getting is there’s still support but not money. So we’re trying to regroup and stay in touch with the city and see if there’s any way to come up with a plan B,” Megathlin said. “We haven’t given up on the overall idea of a new site, and we understand because of the economy where [the other partners] dropped out.”
Megathlin said he will try to maintain support from all entities and hopes they will possibly reconsider the option in the future if some adjustments are made.
“No one has ever said they just don’t want to do it,” Megathlin said.
While he said the university has some flexibility with the time frame, library and study space for the Liberty Campus is a pressing issue that concerns the administration.
“The crediting agency will be coming for a visit in 2011 and they’ll be looking at all our programs and we’re certainly concerned about library facilities and study spaces and maybe computer stations. It’s hard to say how they’d react [if a library wasn’t available for the satellite campus], Megathlin said. “We might have to just explain to them that it may take a little longer than we expected.”
As the university continues to research options, he said a new facility is not necessarily the only thing they’re considering right now.
“We may be able to partner with a current library,” Megathlin said. “So we’ll be working on all those options.”
The city of Hinesville is left to make a decision about whether to continue to help with funding. City Manager Billy Edwards said the mayor and council haven’t decided anything yet.
“We’ll need to talk about it internally within the city before we know what’s going to happen,” Edwards said.
Bill Megathlin, assistant to AASU’s president, said he’s disappointed but understands it’s a bad time to be asking people for money.
“The message we’re getting is there’s still support but not money. So we’re trying to regroup and stay in touch with the city and see if there’s any way to come up with a plan B,” Megathlin said. “We haven’t given up on the overall idea of a new site, and we understand because of the economy where [the other partners] dropped out.”
Megathlin said he will try to maintain support from all entities and hopes they will possibly reconsider the option in the future if some adjustments are made.
“No one has ever said they just don’t want to do it,” Megathlin said.
While he said the university has some flexibility with the time frame, library and study space for the Liberty Campus is a pressing issue that concerns the administration.
“The crediting agency will be coming for a visit in 2011 and they’ll be looking at all our programs and we’re certainly concerned about library facilities and study spaces and maybe computer stations. It’s hard to say how they’d react [if a library wasn’t available for the satellite campus], Megathlin said. “We might have to just explain to them that it may take a little longer than we expected.”
As the university continues to research options, he said a new facility is not necessarily the only thing they’re considering right now.
“We may be able to partner with a current library,” Megathlin said. “So we’ll be working on all those options.”
The city of Hinesville is left to make a decision about whether to continue to help with funding. City Manager Billy Edwards said the mayor and council haven’t decided anything yet.
“We’ll need to talk about it internally within the city before we know what’s going to happen,” Edwards said.