Mayor Rahm Emanuel joined City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor
Cheryl Hyman today to unveil modernization plans for the Advanced Manufacturing
Center at Richard J. College. Daley College’s designation as the City’s Center
for Excellence in advanced manufacturing is a part of the City Colleges’
College to Careers initiative, launched by Mayor Emanuel and Chancellor Hyman
in 2011, which aligns each of the seven city colleges with an industry area
poised for greatest growth in the region.
The modernization at Daley marks the fourth major College to
Careers capital project at CCC since 2011, building on the work to outfit
Olive-Harvey College as the city’s hub for education in transportation,
distribution and logistics, a dedicated child development lab space underway at
Truman College, City Colleges' Center for Excellence in education, human and
natural sciences, and following the completion of the new health sciences
campus at Malcolm X College.
"We are making unprecedented investments in City Colleges to
prepare our CPS graduates, who are graduating at a higher rate than ever
before, for the next step of a 21st century college education,” said Mayor
Emanuel. “With nearly 40 percent of Chicago's students enrolling in college
today, it is critical that they have access to a college education that will
prepare them for the growing job industries of today. With a new state of the
art manufacturing center at Daley College and other investments to strengthen
our City Colleges, we will unlock thousands of opportunities each year for our
students to seize the jobs that are being created right here.”
Over the next decade, an estimated 14,000 manufacturing jobs will
be coming to the Chicagoland region. The Daley College project is one lever in
the Mayor’s agenda to ensure Chicago has a skilled workforce to meet the
growing demand in the advanced manufacturing industry.
"By concentrating our resources, talent and partner relationships
at each of our Centers of Excellence, we are delivering best-in-class programs
in high-demand career fields while responsibly using taxpayer dollars,” said
Chancellor Cheryl L. Hyman. “The new Daley College advanced manufacturing
center will ensure that our students are prepared with the skills to compete in
the increasing technology-driven manufacturing field and all Daley students
will benefit from a new students services bridge, housing tutors, advisors and
more.”
City Colleges will work with the Public Building Commission to
oversee the construction of the $75 million manufacturing center. This project
will bring the total capital investment by City Colleges of Chicago since Mayor
Emanuel took office to more than $500 million, adding capacity to serve an
additional 3,800 students each year in the new Daley Center for Excellence.
To be built on City Colleges-owned land to the south of
76thstreet, the 105,000 square foot Daley advanced manufacturing center is
being designed with input from City Colleges’ College to Careers faculty and
industry partners and will replace several temporary structures that have
housed the manufacturing program for decades. CCC will also work with
industry partners, including UI Labs, to help inform what goes into the
facility and programmatic planning.
The addition will also include a 30,000 square feet bridge that
will straddle 76th street, linking the main Daley College building with the new
manufacturing center so that students can easily access a central one-stop shop
for student services, including tutors, advisors, registration, testing,
disability access, wellness, and other supports.
The advanced manufacturing center will provide students access to
state-of-the-art equipment to solve real-world problems, and will dually serve
as a quality control testing site for small to mid-sized area local
manufacturers.
“Manufacturing companies like ours are looking for employees with
a command of welding, quality control and root cause analysis, and the
simulated environment in Daley’s new advanced manufacturing center will give
students a head start on developing the manufacturing and critical thinking
skills that we look for in successful employees,” said Kathleen Dudek, Dudek
& Bock Spring Manufacturing Company, a City Colleges College to Careers
partner and 70-year old metal fabrication company with 211 employees, located
on the west side of Chicago.
As it did with the $251 million Malcolm X College School of Health
Sciences, completed on time and on budget in January, City Colleges will set
community participation goals for the remainder of project as follows: MBE: 25
percent, WBE: 7 percent, and worker participation: 40 percent Chicago
residents, 12 percent community residents, 30 percent minority trade workers, 7
percent female trade workers, and 5 percent City Colleges alumni/students.
CCC will work with the Public Building Commission (PBC) to manage
the construction and completion of the project on time and on budget. PBC has a
strong track record in designing and building educational facilities that are
equipped to serve students in safe, technologically equipped, and
environmentally friendly setting that will accommodate a 21stcentury education.
PBC is set to approve its work on the project during their June board meeting.
Through College to Careers, launched by Mayor Emanuel and
Chancellor Hyman in 2011, City Colleges faculty and staff partner with industry
leaders to design curriculum and facilities and offer internships and job
opportunities to ensure Chicagoans are ready to hit the ground running in
fast-growing fields.
Since the launch of its Reinvention in 2010, City Colleges has
more than doubled the graduation rate, awarded the highest number of degrees
annually in its history, increased the transfer rate by nine percent, and
placed more than 3,000 students in jobs and internships in a College to Careers
field.