CAL LUTHERAN TO ADD NEW CENTER.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS - Faculty at California Lutheran University will finally have a home and students will have access to more learning tools, thanks to a planned $6 million education and technology center.

University officials will break ground at 4 p.m. today for the new Spies-Bornemann Center for Education and Technology, named after 1970 graduates Karen Bornemann Spies and her husband, Allan Spies. The couple and their relatives have donated more than $1 million, most of which was earmarked for the center.

``We are quite excited about it because it's long overdue,'' said Carol Bartell, dean of the School of Education. ``We will have space to house the school education faculty and have a place that represents the professionalism of what we do.''

Currently, the 18 full-time education faculty and 13 other staff members are scattered throughout the campus. The department's administrative services are housed in a 2,400-square-foot, CLU-owned residential house.

The new 20,000-square-foot center will include offices, a TV studio, a distance learning classroom and a state-of-the art computer laboratory, which will show how technology can be used in the classroom.

Plans are to begin construction in June and have the building open by next fall.

The project is part of the master plan that charts development through 2015 for the 40-year-old liberal arts college.

The School of Education is one of the largest departments at CLU and is growing.

``There's such a need for teachers and more and more people are thinking about teaching as funds become available to assist them to become teachers,'' Bartell said. ``Another field that is growing is school counseling. For many years there's not been much growth in that area now all of a sudden we've rediscovered the need for counselors in schools.''

Bartell said 650 students each semester enroll in the School of Education.

Officials hope to institute a doctorate program for the department in the next year or so, CLU spokeswoman Lynda Paige Fulford said.

All of the money for the center came from private and foundation donations and student fund-raisers. The Bornemann and Spies donation - doled out over a span of about five years - is the largest individual family gift to the campus, Paige Fulford said.

She said CLU is seeking high-tech gadgetry to equip the new building from corporate donors.

A portion of the Denver couple's donation also will go toward CLU's next major construction project, an athletic facility on the north side of Olsen Road.

Officials hope to launch the $80 million project, which would include a new stadium, play fields and aquatic center, within the next four years.