NIU and other universities will offer classes at the University Center of Lake County by fall of 2005 if construction goes as planned.

Construction of the center started in Nov. 2003 and may not be completed until the spring of 2005.

The College of Lake County donated 14 acres of land on its Grayslake campus for the University Center, center associate director Hillary Ward Schnadt said.

The University Center receives a majority of their yearly funding from the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

The Illinois Board of Higher Education will entrust $19 million to the project through state funds, said Dan Layzell, deputy director for planning and budgeting.

The remaining amount will be provided by the Lake County Board and federal grants. The projected final cost of the facility is $25.9 million.

“The construction has gone smoothly and is roughly 25 to 30 percent complete,” said Scot Parker, project manager for Legat Architects. The steel market had some impact on the project’s completion time, he said.

The objective of the University Center is to provide upper-level and graduate programs for Lake County citizens, Ward Schnadt said. The center will house 16 other universities beside NIU, including Illinois State University, DePaul University and three campuses of the University of Illinois.

The center will have 27 classrooms, a library, computer lab, a conference wing with a 100-seat lecture hall, a multi-purpose room which can be divided into three rooms and a cafe for students. Local businesses can also use the facility for conferences or training sessions.

Though the University Center is not yet finished, NIU already offers courses in the Lake County area for those interested in receiving their degree off campus.

“We’ve offered a small number of classes in the Lake County area for many years,” said Anne Kaplan, vice president of Administration and University Outreach.

NIU offers classes toward a master’s of science in education degree and in adult continuing education, Kaplan said. NIU gets good synergy by working with other facilities and also gets more visibility by offering classes in that area, she said.

The University Center predicts that 5,000 students could attend the center when it opens, Schnadt said.

Participating University Center schools

Chicago School of Professional Psychology

Concordia University

DePaul University

Dominican University

Governors State University

Illinois State University

Kendall College

North Park University

Northeastern University

NIU

l Roosevelt University

Saint Xavier University

Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

University of Illinois at Chicago

University of Illinois at Springfield

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign