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Officials at GTCC want to offer furniture design courses on the High Point campus.

GTCC President Don Cameron says he’s begun talks with officials at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Mich., about setting up the program.

Cameron and Oliver H. Evans, Kendall’s president, stressed that no plans have been completed.

“I wouldn’t want to get anybody’s hopes up that something is imminent,” Evans said this week. “But it is an exciting possibility and something we want to explore very carefully.”

Cameron added, “We are far enough along that we want to (do it) .... We have to move slowly because of our budget situation in the state.”

Cameron said the classes, which must be approved by the State Board of Community Colleges, would not begin before the fall of 2010. He anticipates the program would serve 20 to 25 students.

The idea for the courses arises out of a plan put forward last year to transform the Triad’s furniture industry, which contributes $9 billion a year to the area economy.

Jeff Holmes, a furniture industry consultant who authored the plan, brought Cameron and Evans together.

“If we got somebody like Kendall, it would be instant credibility,” Holmes said of the effort. “We would not have to start (the courses) from scratch. I just hope it happens.”

Many Kendall graduates have located in North Carolina to work for area furniture businesses. Kendall is part of Ferris State University.

“The big deal about getting a program like that here is related to the fact that a lot of furniture design is done here even though a lot of furniture is manufactured overseas,” said Janette McNeill, dean of GTCC’s High Point campus. “That would be something important to High Point.”

Cameron said GTCC has offered other furniture-related courses, such as ones in upholstery, for years.

“The design piece has been the missing link,” he said.

He said the proposed courses would not conflict with any furniture-related offerings at High Point University.

It could not be determined how many other schools in the community college system offer furniture design courses. Rockingham Community College offers curriculum classes in furniture design and furniture planning process.

Entering a partnership with a college such as Kendall would not be a first for GTCC.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., teaches classes at GTCC’s aviation complex at Piedmont Triad International Airport.

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com