By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer

DELHI TOWNSHIP - The College of Mount St. Joseph is expected to announce today a sweeping expansion plan that will modernize student living spaces and, for the first time, allow the Lions football team to play games on campus.

The changes are part of a $21.5 million "Building Excitement Campus Expansion Plan," which is being touted as the largest expansion since them Mount moved to its current campus in 1962.

Four years after the Mount revised its core curriculum, school officials are taking steps to improve student life and athletic facilities.

The plan will be paid for through donations to the college and tax-exempt bonds. Silent fund-raising began in the fall, but school officials declined to say how much has been taken in.

"This campus has been well maintained and updated regularly for over 40 years," said Sister Francis Marie Thrailkill, president. "Now we are ready to expand.

"We want to remain small because remaining small is something students clearly want to do. But we know we can go up to 1,600 traditional students (from 1,400) ages 18 to 22 without, in any sense, overtaxing our faculty or increasing class sizes."

The Mount hopes to increase its current enrollment of 2,100 by adding 200 traditional-age college students by year 2009. The planned renovations will help attract new students and give those already enrolled a greater sense of campus community, officials say.

The first phase of the project includes construction of a game field, running track, athletic complex and practice fields, residence hall renovations, a new welcome center and a multilevel parking garage.

Final plans and costs for a second phase of projects, which would run from 2006 through 2010, are under discussion. Those would include a campus commons building and renovation of classrooms and labs.

The Mount broke ground in February on the game field and athletic complex, which will expand the Mount's campus east on the college's former soccer field. An eight-lane running track will circle the field, and seating for 2,400 fans will be available.

The new athletic complex will include concessions, a press box, locker rooms, training facilities and offices. It should be completed in time for the fall football season.

This will mark the first time since the football program began in 1990 that the team will be able to play on campus. For more than 10 years, the Lions traveled across town - from Oak Hills High School in the early 1990s to La Salle, Galbraith Field at Kings Island, Elder High and finally to Mariemont High School for the past two seasons - to play their home games.

Brooks Klosterman, a 20-year-old linebacker from White Oak, said the field would give players a mental edge.

"It kind of gives us the 12th man we've always wanted," he said.

The changes will also give athletes in the track and field program, which began last fall, a place to practice and host competitions. By fall 2005, school officials say, they will offer a soccer program for men to match the one already available for women. By fall 2006, the Mount hopes to offer lacrosse to both men and women.

The school, which sits on 75 acres, will also add two practice fields on property at 5042 River Road, between Anderson Ferry and Bender roads. The 400 students who call one of the three wings in Seton Center home will soon see their living spaces transformed from traditional dorm rooms into suites. Each will have two bedrooms, a private bathroom, a living room and storage space. School officials say these changes will offer the kind of privacy and space students demand. Renovations will begin in May and are scheduled to be complete in spring 2006.

Thrailkill said the renovations will be done in thirds so no students will be displaced, although some may have to double up.

Students such as Melissa Pepper can't wait for the change. Instead of studying in the hallway to escape the noise of the television or her roommate's typing, she'll be able to shut her bedroom door.

"It will give you more studying time and quiet time," said the 19-year-old freshman from Washington Court House.

Construction of a multilevel parking deck, which will begin next week, is scheduled to be completed by fall.

E-mail kgoetz@enquirer.com