Creating Access to Additional Service Programs

Tarrant County College District (TCCD) selected KAI to renovate two existing buildings on their South Campus. The buildings previously housed faculty offices. The College District was providing new homes for three programs developed to support recruitment and retention of non-traditional and first time students. One building would house the Family Empowerment Center, designed to provided external and non-academic support for the families of first time students. Essentially this would teach the families of students how to support them while they were in school. Disability Support Services and Veterans Affairs Programs would be collocated in the other building.

The DSS and VAP building has technology components throughout their South Campus, including a testing center with computer stations and other Internet or networked equipment, a study center hosting additional computers in a non-monitored setting, and enrollment and class scheduler work area with computer workstations adjacent to the reception counter so that veterans can enroll independently but in proximity to receive help from the staff. Each building has the traditional wired and wireless overlay and card key access for all public spaces. There is also a demonstration kitchen in the Family Empowerment Center with cameras focused on the cook surface from multiple vantage points like any cooking show that can be broadcast to the projector in the room, across campus or another campus for a distance education program.

These three programs were independent of each other and in spaces much larger than they are now but the functional lay-out is much more efficient and allows for shared resources reducing their departmental expenses to better serve their representative students.