ULL seeks bids for Picard Center on children

• By MARSHA SILLS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Oct 30, 2009 - Page: 1BA

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LAFAYETTE — The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is accepting bids for the construction of the Cecil J. Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning, university officials said Thursday.

Since its move to ULL from New Orleans, the center’s focus has expanded, and it holds more than 40 research contracts for research related to early childhood, reading and children’s health, said Billy Stokes, center director.

“There’s this whole body of work developed at the university and to be able to give these projects and work a home is something that everyone is looking forward to,” Stokes said during a pre-bid news conference.

One major project is a longitudinal study that will follow children from their preschool years throughout their educational experience and into their working careers, ULL President Joseph Savoie said.

“The longitudinal database will merge information from different state databases and provide valuable date for public policymakers,” Savoie said.

“It will affect multiple disciplines — social services, workforce development, juvenile justice. I think it’s going to be a great value for researchers in multiple disciplines.”

Before becoming part of ULL’s campus in 2005, the research center was housed as an agency within the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans under a different name.

At ULL, the center’s operations have been scattered with offices on the main campus and at the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise Center in the research park.

The new research center is named for Picard, a former state senator, former state superintendent of education and advocate of early childhood education who died in 2007.

The center will be 40,000 square feet in the research park. It will house an archive of Picard’s contributions to education.

The building will incorporate Picard’s vision for the center: a war room with computers and flat screens that will track the health and education of children in the state, Stokes said.

It also includes a 200-seat auditorium that can be split into smaller rooms to facilitate distance learning, he said.

The benefits of being housed under one roof include improved communication among staff and helping to build a presence and identity in the research community, Stokes said, adding it should help with recruitment.