By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Progress is being made on the Convergent Technology Alliance Center on the campus of Missouri Western State University.
Missouri Western President Elizabeth Kennedy says the building is finally starting to look like a building.
"So, there's some really neat milestones, we had the floors those were all poured back at the beginning of October, that was important because now we're kind of rushing against the clock to get the structure on the outside done so they can work on the inside," Kennedy tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "So, we've got the structural steel, which is all the main canopy and the columns, that's all been put up."
Kennedy says exterior framing began on Monday and the roofing should be completed and closed off by January.
Kennedy says with the building progressing nicely, construction is still on track to be completed by June.
"And then we will be ready and open for business in the fall semester of '24, so super-duper excited" Kennedy says. "We hope, I've kind of been quasi-promising this to the boards and folks, is that we should be able to do a hard hat walkthrough in January or February, which is really cool to be in, so we've got that going on."
The CTAC, as it’s called, is a partnership between Missouri Western and North Central Missouri College in Trenton, providing hands-on learning experiences.
Missouri Western President Elizabeth Kennedy says the CTAC was designed with the needs of St. Joseph in mind.
"For students who are interested in technology programs, those technology based professional programs, engineering, cyber, robotics, those kinds of things, it's going to be, a state of the art is probably too old fashioned of a term, because it is going to have the most current equipment and software programs and it's just going to be a spectacular learning environment," Kennedy explains.
Kennedy says both Missouri Western and North Central Missouri College are beginning to work with faculty to begin some workforce development classes before the building is completed.
