By Heart of Illinois ABC
BLOOMINGTON – Add agriculture to the list of growing fields at Heartland Community College in Normal.
The board has approved $23.4 million for a new agriculture building.
It will be a 30,000 square foot building on the west side of campus near the farmhouse.
Heartland President Keith Cornille said the program expansion will be a supplemental program that helps fill a key need.
He said Illinois had over 4,000 agriculture-related jobs posted in the last year, but fewer than 3,000 people applied.
“Agriculture is one of the largest sectors for job growth and job needs within this region. And so we’re responding to that.”
Cornille said the 40 student program they now have will be able to expand to 200 hundred students.
Starting in the fall semester, students can earn certificates in areas such as precision agriculture, agronomy, and food sustainability.
“This provides an individual an opportunity, maybe coming out of high school, to be able to afford starting college, getting that foundation underneath them, and then moving on,” Cornille said.
Heartland also invested one million dollars on improving cybersecurity following an outside attack in October.
Cornille said the college made the investment to prevent future attacks.
“The important thing here is that we undertsand where we need to strengthen ourselves and we’re investing in strengthening ourselves to make sure our systems and our data is secure moving forward.”
An architect is working on the agriculture building’s design, with hopes to start construction by the end of the year.
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