CLEMSON -- Clemson University Thursday committed $225 million for investments in facility improvements, utility upgrades and information technology.

University President James F. Barker outlined a campus development plan that will focus on increasing and enhancing academic space; expanding research capacity; providing support systems to help faculty, staff and students achieve their goals; and improving the quality of life for the students.

By leveraging existing or appropriated state funds, institutional bond capacity, auxiliary revenues and private gifts, Clemson expects to begin work on or complete some projects between now and 2010.

The university hopes these developments will improve environmental sustainability and create an information technology backbone that could make Clemson competitive with America’s top 20 public universities.

“Today, we are … building a new kind of university in response to higher expectations of quality from our state, our students and ourselves,” Barker said in an end of the school year faculty and staff meeting. “This investment is necessary if we are to meet those expectations and achieve our full potential.”

Changes in academic space include a renovation and expansion of Rhodes Hall, which houses bioengineering programs. Construction should be under way by year-end.

Ground will be broken this year for a new facility for the Sonoco Packaging Design and Graphics Institute, which will create new opportunities for collaboration between packaging science and graphic communications programs.

Space in Earle Hall, an engineering building, will be converted to offices and classrooms.

“Sometimes, it’s just a matter of making the best use of the space we have,” Barker said. “There is much more to come. By 2010, fundraising should be well under way for a number of other major developments.”

These projects include a “center of centers” involving a collaboration between the library, the Brooks Center for Performing Arts and the Strom Thurmond Institute. The development will begin with construction of an information technology center and a stand-alone facility for the academic success center. The new IT facility will house customer support services, computer training facilities and innovative workspaces.

The new academic success center will accommodate the growing demand for its services and free up space in the library and add much-needed classroom space.

Plans also are in motion to address parking, day care needs and other customer services from student housing to dining facilities to the cyber infrastructure.