GMC News

Georgia Military College Breaks Ground On New Campus in Fayetteville, Georgia

[Milledgeville, GA] – Georgia Military College broke ground yesterday for its new 25,000-square-foot campus in Fayetteville, Ga., which school and government officials say will significantly help support the educational needs of the area’s growing workforce.

“This week, we celebrated the 135th birthday of GMC.  Now, here we stand, renewing yet again our commitment to the state – and to young men and women who want to better their lives – with this groundbreaking for our Fayetteville campus,” said Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell, IV, GMC president during the ceremony. “At GMC, we greatly value the development of character and saw that same commitment to character amongst the leaders here in Fayetteville.  We’re excited to be working in close partnership with the City of Fayetteville and Fayette County, together with the Board of Education, elected officials, and the business community to understand and serve your needs.” 

GMC Fayetteville is the school’s tenth campus, with local enrollment expected to reach 500 full-time students within the first five years.  The campus will house seven classrooms, as well as a computer assisted instruction lab, a biology/chemistry lab, library, learning center, testing center, computer lab, bookstore and student lounge, as well as faculty and staff offices. “And nothing would make us happier than to see demand grow beyond that capacity, which would have us launching phase two of our construction inside of the five years,” added General Caldwell. 

GMC Fayetteville will offer all of the coursework and online programs offered at the school’s other campuses, taught by full-time and adjunct faculty.  In addition, GMC officials will develop courses specifically tailored to meet the needs of the Fayetteville area workforce.

“It’s with great pleasure that I have the honor of welcoming GMC’s newest campus to our town.  We all know that the wheels of government can grind slowly, but as a government official, it has been delightful to see how quickly GMC has moved form the initial decision to open a campus here to actually putting ‘boots on the ground,’ as it were, including standing up two entirely new courses of study: allied health care and computer classes for film,” Greg Clifton, Mayor, Fayetteville, Ga. “I thank you for your financial investment in our community.  I thank you for your commitment to excellence, both academically and morally. We look forward to a long and productive relationship with GMC. We’re very glad you’re here!”

Fayette County Chairman of Commissioners, Steve Brown, echoed the mayor’s sentiments. “For 15 years, we’ve heard nothing but ‘we need a college campus in Fayetteville.’ We are so happy and entirely pleased to welcome GMC to Fayetteville,” he said. “Our county commissioners are behind this impressive school all the way.”

School officials chose West Fayetteville as the home of their new campus based on the already-established business market in the area, which includes Piedmont Fayette Hospital, with more than 1,000 employees.  Additionally, Pinewood Atlanta Studios, a multimillion-dollar, full service film and entertainment studio arrived there in early 2014.

“GMC Fayetteville will be a major milestone toward accomplishing ‘Vision 2029,’ our 15-year strategic plan. Our aim is to give Fayette County a connection to GMC that will allow them to plug in, charge up, embrace the vision and equip for service,” said Brigadier General (Ret.) Scott F. “Rock” Donahue, executive director, GMC Fayetteville. “We’ll work tirelessly to support students from Fayetteville and the region through our open enrollment program, articulation agreements with four-year schools across the state, dual enrollment programs and now our proposed four-year Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) degree.”

GMC Fayetteville will be located at the intersection of South Sandy Creek Road and Veterans Parkway in the western part of Fayetteville. Group VI Development and Promaker Development Group of Fayette County, Ga., are the developers for the project. “This is truly a momentous occasion. We’re very excited to get GMC here and we appreciate the decisiveness of its leadership in moving the project forward,” said Jim Pace, Founder, Group VI. “This community will one day be a community they write books about…and GMC will have played a big role in helping raise the bar by bringing the finest education to the area.  This is a good day for our county, our state and for GMC.”

Construction is expected to be complete by late spring 2015. In the meantime, classes will be offered in January 2015 in the school’s temporary location at Pinewood Atlanta Studios Production Centre.

The Fayetteville campus will be GMC’s tenth location statewide, and its third location in metro Atlanta, including campuses in Fairburn and Stone Mountain.

For information about GMC, please visit https://www.gmc.cc.ga.us or call 478-387-4846.

About Georgia Military College
Georgia Military College is the state’s second largest, two-year, public college with campuses in Milledgeville, Augusta, Fairburn, Warner Robins, Valdosta and Columbus, extension centers in Madison, Sandersville, and Stone Mountain, and an online campus program. Its enrollment includes more than 12,000 civilian students at these locations, plus 250 junior college cadets and 500 prep school students at their Milledgeville campus.
For more information about GMC, please visit https://www.gmc.cc.ga.us or call 478-387-4846.

Pictured:  Georgia Military College and local officials dig in, breaking ground for GMC’s newest campus in Fayetteville, set to open for classes late next summer. Manning the shovels are (left to right): Brigadier General Curt Rauhut, GMC Senior VP & Chief Operations Officer; Mr. Dudley Rowe, Chairman, GMC Foundation; Mr. Greg Clifton, Mayor, Fayetteville, Ga.; Mr. Jim Pace, Founder, Group VI; Shirley Adams Horton, a friend of GMC; Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell IV, President, GMC; Mr. Randy New, Chairman, GMC Board of Trustees; Mr. Steve Brown, Chairman, Fayette County Commission; Mr. Mark Strom,  GMC Senior VP for College Relations and Executive Director of GMC Foundation; BG Scott “Rock” Donahue, GMC Fayetteville Executive Director.