ORANGEBURG, S.C. — Congressman James Clyburn presented Claflin University with a check for $17,417,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Institute of Standards and Technology on Monday. This money will fund the construction of an Innovation Center for Computer Science and Biotechnology.
The Innovative Center for Computer Science and Biotechnology will house Claflin's STEM programs for example; environmental science, cyber security, artificial technology, robotics and more research studies.
Karina Liles is the chair of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department at Claflin and believes that this new building will help the success of her department moving forward.
“We are out of space," said Liles. "We are adding sections to classes, we are trying to make do with what we have but this building now give us more classroom space and it gives us more lab space.”
Reynolda Brown is the Vice President of Enrollment Management at the university and believes that the new Innovation Center is a necessary addition to campus as majority of incoming students plan to study stem careers.
“This is the second year that over fifty percent of our entering student population will be STEM majors," said Brown. "Whether it’s biology, computer science, computer engineering, chemistry. But I think that the new building is going to help me in 2024, 2025 to even increase our number to maybe seventy-five percent of our student population.”
One of the students studying a STEM major is Khari Graham. Graham is entering his senior year and although he will graduate before construction is completed on the Innovation Center he believes that the opportunities a successful STEM program provides are intangible.
“The opportunity are honestly endless within biotechnology and computer science," said Graham. "Just the STEM area, there’s so many places you could take it And you don’t have to be basically stuck in one place."
Doctor Warmack is the President at Claflin and believes that this new addition will help with jo retention for students after graduation.
“Companies come to us all the time; Hey, I need twenty-five of those computer science graduates", said Warmack. "Well we don’t have the lab space to be able to do that. So now, this allows us to have larger classroom space, lab space and research faculty to be able to produce it.”
Ground is set to break on this new building before the end of this calendar year.