A portion of an artist's rendering of the proposed Three Rivers Community College consolidated campus on the present site of Norwich Technical Vocational School on New London Turnpike in Norwich. Gov. John G. Rowland announced the new site on Thursday, effectively ending a 10-year debate on where the college should be expanded. Courtesy DuBose Associates Architects

By EILEEN MCNAMARA
Day Staff Writer
Published on 10/31/2003

Officials at Norwich Regional Vocational-Technical School reacted with a mixture of relief, apprehension and surprise Thursday afternoon to the news that Three Rivers Community College and the high school would swap locations.

College officials reacted mostly with relief.

“I am very appreciative that the decision has been made,” said Grace Sawyer Jones, president of Three Rivers. “At last, closure. The citizens of southeastern Connecticut will be better served by a new facility.”

“I'm shocked,” said Nikitoula Menounos, Norwich Tech's director. “The last I knew, we were expanding on our site.”

Gov. John G. Rowland announced Thursday a $75 million plan to consolidate Three Rivers' two campuses at the high school site on New London Turnpike. The site is next door to the college's Thames Valley Campus.

Norwich Tech would move to the college's Mohegan Campus on Mahan Drive. Plans to merge the college's two campuses into a larger, single campus have been in the works for more than a decade.

Though taken aback by Rowland's decision, Menounos said the technical high school needs to expand wherever it can.

A proposed $44 million expansion and renovation of the high school — part of a state effort to renovate all 18 high schools in the vocational-technical system — has been on hold for two years as politicians negotiated the consolidation of Three Rivers.

Norwich Tech, which draws applicants from around the region, is bursting at the seams, Menounos said. Current enrollment is 551, which includes 183 freshmen, the highest levels since the 1980s. Prospective students now must sign a waiting list, she said, and many are turned away for lack of space.

“All our departments are cramped,” Menounos said. Of all the laboratory and workshop spaces in the vo-tech system, she said, “ours are probably the smallest.”

In announcing the agreement, Rowland praised the vocational schools, calling them “the original magnet schools” and saying they had been neglected for too long.

Some of the schools have not been renovated since the 1940s, he said.

Moving the school from one side of the city to the other will be a challenge, said Jim Bell, who heads the school's graphics department and who serves on the committee that recruits prospective students.

“What concerns me now is how to make a smooth transition,” said Bell. “How do you close a school in one place and move it to another?”

Bell is among those who wanted Three Rivers moved to the former Norwich State Hospital site in Preston. Norwich officials, who wanted the college kept within the city limits, opposed that proposal.

“I think it's unfortunate that politics came into play in locating the school,” Bell said. “I don't see where Norwich is gaining anything by making the swap.”

But Bell said he was pleased his department would get more space under the consolidation plan.

“It's progress,” he said, “but I don't know if it's the best way.”

College officials and students also had wanted to expand and consolidate Three Rivers' two facilities at its main campus on Mahan Drive. But they said Wednesday they would fully support the governor's decision and are thrilled that the college will get a new home.

They said they are anxious for the proposal to get moving.

Three Rivers also is in desperate need of more space and could be losing about $1 million annually from students who must be turned away.

“Consolidation has been on the agenda for 10 years, and every year that we do not consolidate costs us $1 million, so I'm anxious that we get moving,” said David Cannon, who serves on Three Rivers Board of Directors.

Cannon said Rowland's decision ends years of frustration in the region about where a consolidated Three Rivers would be located.

“It's like being pregnant for 10 years,” he said. “The anticipation, the planning that comes to naught. You think you're ready to give birth and you don't. It's been a great frustration.”

Lina Chankar, president of Three Rivers' Student Government, said students were experiencing mixed reactions to the announcement. About two weeks ago, she said, the student government created a committee to lobby to keep the consolidated college on Mahan Drive. The group now will probably support the new proposal.

“For me, it's just a relief to know the decision has been made. Now I think they should just move it forward,” Chankar said.

e.mcnamara@theday.com
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