[11/22/02]Alcorn State University announced plans Thursday to add classes offered in Vicksburg in the spring, but their plans don’t include using the vacant ParkView Regional Medical Center.

Dr. Clinton Bristow Jr., said students will be invited to sign up for new courses that will begin in January and will be taught at the Hinds Community College Campus on Mississippi 27.

Classes will not duplicate Hinds’ offerings, but will include computers, computer networking, nursing and teacher education. In limited fields, students will be able to achieve a four-year college degree here.

“Our goal is to be able to offer someone a degree without them ever having to leave Vicksburg,” said Bristow, Alcorn’s president. More graduate-level courses are planned, too. A schedule and list of classes will be advertised in December, he said.

Alcorn’s expansion plan for Vicksburg won the approval of Hinds President Clyde Muse and unanimous approval of the state College Board on Thursday. It enlarges a higher education consortium formed here among Hinds, Alcorn and Mississippi State University several years ago.

Earlier this year, Bristow had announced plans to include the former hospital as classroom and lab space. Bristow said those plans are not dead, but said nothing has been worked out at this time.

“We weren’t able to get all of the pieces in place in time to meet our goals,” Bristow said.

A plan presented by Bristow in January called for a non-profit organization to take over the management of the facility and lease portions of the property to Alcorn. The management company would also find other tenants for the building, but so far, no deal has been worked out between the college and River Region.

“It’s just too much space for us by ourselves,” Bristow said.

The 45-year-old hospital on Grove Street closed in February after the opening of River Region Medical Center on U.S. 61 North. Built as Mercy Hospital the complex served most of Vicksburg and the surrounding communities.

Marian Hill Chemical Dependency Center has continued to operate in the ParkView complex and The Street Clinic and the Vicksburg Cancer Center have remained at their sites on Grove.

In September, Mayor Laurence Leyens announced that hospital officials are prepared to tear down the building if a deal cannot be worked out in a year, but Diane Gawronski, spokesman for River Region, said they are still interested in plans with Alcorn.

“As far as we’re concerned, we’re still moving forward,” Gawronski said.

Bristow said the college was able to work out an agreement with Hinds to offer night classes to up to 200 students at the campus on Highway 27. “We think it’s going to work out well,” Bristow said.

One of Mississippi’s three historically black universities, Alcorn’s main campus is in Lorman, about halfway between Vicksburg and Natchez. The 3,150-student school also operates master of business administration and nursing degree programs in Nachez.

Alcorn stands to share in a pending $500 million infusion in a proposed settlement of the 26-year-old Ayers college desegregation case.

When funds from the settlement are made available to the university, they could supplement the cost of the expansion into Vicksburg, Bristow said.