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GREENSBORO — N.C. A&T has the students, faculty and federal grants to rev up its engineering program.

Now, all it needs is the space, and leaders in the state Senate want to help the university solve that problem.

Senate leaders Tuesday proposed a higher education bond package that would include $104 million to build a school of engineering at A&T.

“It will be an expansion of our program, and as far as I know, it will be a new facility,” state Sen. Katie Dorsett, a Guilford County Democrat, said Tuesday.

Andrew Perkins, A&T’s assistant vice chancellor for facilities and engineering, said a new building is needed to help attract the best and brightest to the engineering program.

“We felt that looking toward the future ... we wanted to have a very robust engineering facility to support the anticipated and continued growth of our school of engineering,” Perkins said. “We have an excellent engineering program now. We just want to make it better and greater.”

The school of engineering is housed in several buildings across campus. The main program is in McNair Hall, but there are laboratories in other buildings such as Graham Hall.

Perkins said the university is considering putting  the 200,000-square-foot building next to McNair Hall. The $104 million figure is an estimate that would cover land acquisition, construction, furnishings and technology upgrades, Perkins said.

A&T’s engineering program is nationally recognized, university leaders say. It is tops in the nation for the number of black engineering undergraduates it produces, said Winser  Alexander, interim dean of the College of Engineering.

As of fall 2009, there were more than 1,300 undergraduates and more than 300 graduate students enrolled in the program, he said.

“We’re looking for space to accommodate growth in our graduate programs and growth in our sponsored research, and also to improve the quality of our undergraduate program,” Alexander said.

The school also has experienced increased activity in its graduate and research programs within the past several years.

Alexander said that in the 2008-09 academic year, the university received more than $14 million from federal agencies to support research. A&T is the lead institution in the Engineering Research Center, which will focus on developing new materials for biomedical applications.

The university needs additional space to carry out that important research, Alexander said. 

If the university can secure design funds, construction could start as early as 2012 or 2013, Perkins said.

A&T isn’t the only college that would benefit from the bond package. Other aspects include: $130 million to finance capital facility costs of repairing and renovating state buildings in a manner to be determined by the General Assembly; $55 million to acquire equipment for the UNC and community college systems; and $161.5 million to finance an engineering building at N.C. State.

Staff Writer Mark Binker contributed to this report.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 373-7080 or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com