Governor Jim Hunt will sign the Michael K. Hooker Higher Education Facilities Finance Act (SB912) at 10:00 a.m. on the Salisbury Street side of the Capitol.  The legislation will put the higher education bond referendum on the election ballot in November 2000. The bond includes $600 million for community colleges and $2.5 billion for the University of North Carolina.

"This bond package will provide more capital improvement and new construction money for community colleges than the General Assembly has appropriated for our institutions in all of the last 37 years," said President Lancaster.

Buses filled with faculty, staff and students from several of the 58 community colleges are expected to come to Raleigh to witness the bill signing.  Lancaster says this show of support is an indication of the importance of the legislation. "Our colleges will experience tremendous enrollment growth in the next few years.  Many institutions are already suffering because of unprecedented growth.  Without this money we will not be able to effectively provide the services these students need."

The community colleges, the University of North Carolina and the North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry have pledged to work together to take the message to the voters.

The North Carolina Community College System, with 759,000 students, is the third largest community college system in the United States.  The System is the state's primary agency for delivery of job training, literacy and adult education programs.

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