After years of planning by the Lone Star College System, voters approved a $485 million bond during the Nov. 5 election.

This month the college system will begin to phase in planned projects, beginning with high priority workforce centers, hiring additional faculty and expanding the capacity of strained campuses.

"We have been on a dramatic growth path for about 10 years now—we have doubled in size during that time," said Ray Laughter, LSCS vice chancellor of external affairs. "We have been trying to position ourselves to ensure that we can continue to provide access to all of the students [who] want to come here. So we are very grateful to voters for approving the bonding capacity."

The system will use the bond funds to meet growing demand, increase its full-time faculty workforce and to build three new workforce-training centers that are in line with the needs of local industries, Laughter said.

"There is such a huge shortage of workers as well as a large number of unemployed people in our area that could fill those jobs if they just had the training," Laughter said.

Planned centers would train students in information technology as well as the oil and gas and the chemical industries.

The system also plans to relieve stress on high-capacity campuses, such as its Cy-Fair campus, Laughter said.