Can Madison College use existing vacant commercial buildings or local high schools instead of building new buildings?
Yes and no. Madison College has a six-year lease remaining on the former Famous Footwear building on the city’s West Side. For decades, Madison College has held classes in existing commercial buildings, local high schools, community centers and churches for courses that need a simple, traditional classroom environment and when those facilities are ADA compliant and include appropriate HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) systems. Modifying space for ADA compliancy and appropriate HVAC systems is an extremely costly use of taxpayers’ dollars. Madison College is a training, as well as teaching, college necessitating the need for specialized equipment and facilities that mirror the work environment in which our students will be employed. This commitment to real world smart education makes it cost prohibitive to design and equip facilities that are not owned and regularly used by the college for program specific functions. One area employer told us that he likes our real world
