From the outside, the building at 1200 Commerce Drive in Peachtree City looks just like any other tastefully done office building. But head to the second floor, and you’ll discover the nerve center of Clayton State University’s Fayette operation.

In January, the university started offering classes at the Commerce Drive location and now has more than 200 students taking classes in the county.

“This is one of our more popular instructional sites, and we plan on ramping up to have a larger presence in the county,” said Vice President for External Relations Robert Stephens Jr.

Down the road, the university would love to have a satellite campus in the county, but Stephens said talks to secure a site are just beginning to occur, and the Board of Regents would have to sign off on the proposal.

In the meantime, Clayton State is busy offering courses in several degree fields, including a bachelor’s program in psychology, along with a Master of Business Administration, which currently has 15 students.

The university has three classrooms at the Peachtree City site, and should have a fourth one completed later this spring. The center also offers an admissions representative onsite, along with a program that offers an airline management degree completion program. The program is headed up by former ASA president Bryan LaBrecque.

“He wants to give back to the community by teaching for us,” says Ginny Bass of Clayton State’s Academic Outreach Department.

The center will also start offering continuing education classes starting this summer. The classes slated for summer are Microsoft Office Basics, Microsoft Office Advanced, Excel, Quickbooks 1,Quickbooks 2, Spanish 1, Sign Language, Photoshop CS2 Basics, Digital Photography 1 and Digital Photography 2.

The university is also expanding its outreach program and will have two professors reading at the Fayette County Library within the next few weeks.

Assistant Professor of English Dr. Brigitte Byrd, and Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Integrative Studies Dr. Wendy Burns-Ardolino will be reading at the Fayette County Library April 12 and May 13, respectively. Both readings are free and open to the public, according to Director of University Relations John Shiffert.

Byrd, a resident of Fayetteville, will have a reading, Q&A and book signing starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday. As the author of two published poetry collections, her prize-winning work has also appeared in several anthologies and numerous literary magazines. A native of France where she was trained as a dancer, Byrd teaches creative writing at Clayton State.

Her third poetry collection, “Song of a Living Room,” is scheduled for publication in the fall 2009. Byrd will read selections of her poetry, answer questions from the audience, and sign copies of “The Dazzling Land,” which will be on sale at the event. Proceeds from this event will benefit the Friends of the Library.

Burns-Ardolino will be reading at 7 p.m. on May 13 from her new and provocative book, “Jiggle: (Re)Shaping American Women,” which looks at the reshaping of American women or, at least, the cultural significance of the relationship between American women and their bodies as mediated by both traditional and contemporary foundation garments, said Shiffert in a press release.

Beginning in the 1930s with a discussion of traditional foundation garments, Burns-Ardolino analyzes contemporary shapewear in terms of shaping women physically, culturally and socially.

The Fayette center also plans to work with Encore Fayette to develop classes for seniors. Additionally, the center is also looking to add future degree programs including paralegal studies, a master of science in nursing and a master of health administration.

“A survey showed an 89 percent interest in having higher education available in the county and we want to fill that need,” said Shiffert.

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