Tennessee State University News May 31, 2012 Tennessee State University to Break Ground on New Academic Building Tennessee State University is getting ready to break ground for the first new academic building in nearly six years. The University will break ground on the new Agricultural Biotechnology Research Building Wednesday, June 6 in a ceremony that will take place at 10 a.m. The new 30,000 square foot building is estimated to cost around $7 million and will be covered through funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Construction will begin in July and is expected to be completed during the Fall Semester 2013. Dignitaries expected to be in attendance at the ceremony include Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture; Senator Thelma Harper; Julius Johnson, Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture; and Dr. Portia Shields, President of Tennessee State University. Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor John Morgan, Chancellor of the Tennessee Institute of Agriculture Larry Arrington, and Pat Bagley, Dean of the Agriculture and Human Science at Tennessee Tech University will also be in attendance. When complete, the new Ag-Bio Research Building will house and support primarily agriculture research and provide working space for more than 20 new Ph.D. level scientists that have joined the University in the past 18 months. The construction of the new building comes on the heels of recently completed agricultural facilities including six new green houses and landscape studio. According to Dr. Chandra Reddy, Dean of the College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Sciences, the University is trying to meet the growing needs of research space for the College's increasing number of faculty and students. "To meet our fast-growing needs, we will also be building a new agricultural Education Building and a new field research lab for the use of undergraduate and graduate student education and research purposes soon," said Reddy. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-520-0593 Skype:sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children. Register now http://www.hbculibraries.org/html/2012meeting-form.html for the October 21-23, 2012 HBCU Library Alliance 5th Membership Meeting and the Photographic Preservation Pre-Conference in New Orleans, LA. The Pre-Conference and Membership meeting are open to directors and other librarians.