A new college at Northern Kentucky University is set to get a new home by 2010.

The College of Informatics will be the next construction project to take shape at NKU, putting it in line with the Bank of Kentucky Arena and the new Student Union.

Currently, the classrooms and faculty offices are split between Landrum Academic Center and the Applied Science and Technology building. The new Informatics building will unite the college by putting them all under one roof.

However, its campus locations is undetermined.

“While the new Center for Informatics will take away a parking lot, long-range plans for the NKU campus call for the creation of compensatory parking spaces as new buildings are added to the campus,” said Dr. Douglas Perry, dean of the College of Informatics.

The College of Informatics was new to NKU in 2005 when the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Professional Studies and the College of Business Informatics combined their setups.

“NKU is one of the most under-built universities in the Commonwealth,” said Chris Strobel, coordinator and assistant professor of electronic media and broadcasting and a member of the committee responsible for making decisions about the Informatics building.

The State of Kentucky granted NKU 35.5 million dollars in the last budget that was approved, Strobel said. The college is now looking for any further funding possible through building sponsors or “naming opportunities.”

With more than 1,000 students majoring within the College of Informatics, the building of the new college will affect about one-tenth of the students on campus, Strobel said.

The Center for Informatics has not yet made room for Student Media, which involves the Licking River Review, NKU Expressed, the Lost Cause Review, the Northerner and WRFN.

“I suspect media operations will not be in the Informatics Building since they comprise student organizations. And being media organizations too, they need to be independent from academic departments,” said Gaut Ragsdale, chairman of the Department of Communication.

The Center for Informatics will have computer labs available to all majors. Also, a cyber caf’eacute; is in the works.

“Combining communication and technology is a great idea,” said Katie Dillon, senior public relations major.

“We want it to be cool,” Strobel said. “If this is just for our (Informatics) students, then it is not successful.”