This morning I attended a breakfast with legislators at Tunxis Community College. It was an opportunity for State Representative John Geragosian and Senator Donald DeFronzo (both representing New Britain) to meet with faculty, staff and students. This was the first of three meetings because my little school in Farmington serves 11 cities and towns, but doesn’t quite have the free space necessary to host a massive meeting of all their elected officials at once.

Tunxis Community College–and the entire Connecticut Community College system–has needs. As a group of faculty, staff and students who are committed to the future of Tunxis this breakfast meeting was an opportunity for us to give Sen. DeFronzo and Rep. Geragosian a briefing on the issues facing our institution. Just as importantly, it was an opportunity to thank them both for their support of Tunxis over the years.

Speaking of needs, for example, enrollment at Tunxis is up 37% from 2000, but the number of full time faculty is up 0%. Increased funding for full-time faculty is one of those needs that I asked the appropriations committee to consider in my testimony last month.

The best part of the day was the tour of the new buildings. One week after Rep. Geragosian led a group of bloggers on a tour of the Capitol, I had a chance to accompany him on a tour of the new buildings on campus, which are scheduled for completion over the summer. Take a look at this picture of Rep. Geragosian and I from today’s tour:

I took a few additional pictures of the interior, but you can get a much better sense of things at the Campus Expansion page of Tunxis Community College’s website:
Photo from the Tunxis Community College Website
You can view a time-lapse video of the construction here, and some architectural renderings here.