The Anguilla Community College is now located in what has been described, by some commentators, as a ‘new half-way home’.
Until early in June, this year, the College was housed in the spacious Rogers’ Commercial Complex just off the George Hill Main road, near Rey’s Funeral Home. The two-storey building provided amble space for various class and lecture rooms; faculty staff offices; a teaching cuisine restaurant and other facilities.
For some time there were plans for the College to be moved to its new location on Government-owned land in The Farrington area. There, more than eleven acres were said to have been earmarked for its campus. The plans to relocate appeared to have been further hastened when, as part of the Government’s financial intervention in the operations of the Statutory Bodies, some cost-cutting measures had to be implemented by all of the boards.
The campus is now housed at what was originally built as a Factory Shell but was eventually reconstructed as a technical facility for the Community College.
The earlier plans called for the construction of a fully-fledged campus with a two-storey structure housing classrooms; administrative offices; technical wings; culinary rooms and other facilities. A sizeable loan for that purpose was already approved; by the Caribbean Development Bank; design drawings were done and approved and, at one time, a Grenada-based construction company was contracted to build the project. However, this eventually did not come to fruition.
So far, nothing further is known about the project and the newly-elected Government is yet to make a statement on the matter.
The Anguilla Community College held an Open Day function at its new location, on September 3, and called in the media to cover the event. The purpose was to showcase the various study programmes being offered to students, and to encourage more registrations.
Though functioning as best as it can, and with the full dedication and commitment of its faculty staff, lecturers and students, the Anguilla Community College continues to serve as one of Anguilla’s tertiary education institutions.
But, in terms of its overall planned design and expanse of structure, it is a far cry from what it was originally expected to be.
