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Wednesday, March 2, 2000 Advanced technology and search for a president are big stories at Pearl River Community College      POPLARVILLE - The approval and funding for a long awaited  advanced technology center and the retirement announcement of President Ted Alexander are last year's top news stories at Pearl River Community College.      Major renovation projects, program and curriculum enhancement, and a leap onto the World Wide Web are other  major Pearl River College sidebars.      The search for Pearl River's tenth president began in September after Dr. Alexander, president since 1986, announced that he would retire June 30. The PRCC board started the formal process of taking applications on Nov. 1 which ended Jan. 7.                         Board Chairman Charles Speed of Prentiss reported at the February meeting that a list of 16 applicants had been narrowed to 6 and the Presidential Search Committee had scheduled two days of interviews for the semi-finalists.  Finalists are expected to be presented to the overall board in March with the selection announced in early April.      Under President Alexander's leadership PRCC quadrupled the number of district citizens served each year through its varied educational offerings and the college's budget increased from $6.4 million in 1986 to more than $36.8 million today.      Alexander has been the guiding force in renovating and rebuilding the school's Poplarville and Hattiesburg campuses. Renovation and construction projects completed total more than $31 million with another $9 million in progress.      "Dr. Alexander has set the stage for Pearl River to continue its leadership role," said Charles Speed, board chairman from Prentiss.      "Over the years he tackled many sensitive issues head on," said Speed. "But he never lost focus on what it takes to keep Pearl River in the educational forefront within our six-county district."      One of the biggest projects spearheaded  by Alexander during the 1990s  was the design and funding of an advanced technology center.      The Advanced Center for Technology Partnership (ACTP) became a reality last spring when the Mississippi Legislature set aside $4 million  to build the center in  the Hattiesburg- Forrest County Industrial Park.       The project, first introduced in the Legislature in 1994, became a local cooperative effort which included a lot of hard work on the part of  legislators, business and industry leaders, educators, the private sector, economic development entities, government agencies and the general community.       The advanced technology center will concentrate on advancing underused technology, technology development, training delivery, education and workforce transfer.      "There is no project more important to economic development than this," said Lowery Woodall, retired CEO of Forrest General Hospital and area Development Partnership task force chairman. "This concept, this center, will allow our region to compete worldwide."      For the $4 million to be activated, the legislature required the local community to contribute $1 million to the project. The City of Hattiesburg committed $500,000 in September and this week the  Forrest County Board of Supervisors pledged $400,000 over a two year period to the local match.      The board agreed to pay $200,000 this year and an additional $200,000 in 2001.      A private foundation is expected to contribute the final $100,000 and PRCC's other five counties (Hancock, Jefferson Davis, Lamar, Marion and Pearl River)  have been asked to help fund the operational costs of the facility.      "It's been a long, hard and uphill endeavor," said Dr. Alexander. "So many people have worked so long to make this possible. It's a great day for the citizens of our district."      "This will hopefully be the first real technological center in the state," said Lynn Cartlidge, president of the Forrest County Board of Supervisors. "It will be a strong economical tool that can be sued to bring industries to the area."      A new $2 million Administration Building was opened in May, becoming  the focal point of the Poplarville campus. The completion of the two-story addition signaled the completion of a ten-year master plan.       Pearl River and Huff resident halls are presently being completely renovated. A central cooling and heating system connecting Huff, Pearl River, Moody, and the Vocational Building is under construction now.       Future construction projects include building a new student center and renovating the old administration building into a computer center complex. Money set aside for the projects, including the Advanced technology Center, is nearly $9 million.       The following are divisional  highlights: >More than 50 computers have been installed throughout the academic division. Some of the computers are being used for instructional support and student advising while others were added to instructional labs, classroom systems and the library. Eleven more computers were bought for the Business Department's instructional lab. > PRCC graduate Chrissy Martin, now  a student at USM, was one of 10 students in the nation to receive a $5000 Guistwhite Academic Scholarship. >All PRCC vocational-technical programs met or exceeded mandatory standards and Measures as required by the State Department of Education. All Dental Hygiene graduates passed both the State and National Board Examination. This marks the sixth straight year, or every graduating class, which has had every member to pass the exams. All Occupational Therapy Assistant graduates passed their certification for the third consecutive year >New vocational-technical programs initiated included a medical radiologic technology program and welding program, and two new Geological Information System courses. >The Workforce Development Center served 9,863 persons through its workforce training projects. There were 76 training projects for 45 business and industry customers. State money provided for workforce training within the PRCC district was $1.1 million.  >The Pearl River Small Business Development Center served 1,087 people and conducted 67 workshops.         >Fall Semester students  were allowed to complete early Spring Semester registration over the Internet. More than 2000 students took advantage of the on-line service. Plans are to have all students register on-line by the fall. >A number of guidance, recruitment, orientation, retention, and student activities were coordinated throughout the year. More than 1000 students and parents attended orientation programs during the summer. >The PRCC Development Foundation reported that more than $3,6 million  in total funds had been raised over the last 12 years. Student scholarships funded were in excess of $784,497 and there is $1.2 million in endowments. >During the past year there were $5,792,134 in new, direct cash, grant awards made for individual programs or for institutional development process by the Office of Research Administration and Grant Programs.  >Both male and female soccer teams hit the field for the first time last fall. The men reached the state finals and the Lady Wildcats were just nosed out of post-season play. >Pearl River's first year on the Internet attracted more than 80,000 visits. There are now more than 750 pages of information on the Pearl River site.