The Marshall Board of Governors approved a multimillion-dollar expansion last Wednesday, Oct. 11, to build a new hangar and purchase a helicopter for the Bill Noe Flight School in Charleston.

“The current hangar houses seven airplanes, and when the eighth aircraft arrives later this fall, the hangar will be at capacity,” said Toney Stroud, Marshall’s vice president of strategic initiatives, in the announcement. “The second hangar will allow for additional planes including helicopters.”

Stroud said the expansion will likely cost no more than $15 million; however, he also said the success of the aviation program at Marshall justifies the costs.

“Our flight programs have exceeded all expectations with the pilot program at 140% of initial estimates for our enrollment,” Stroud said.

This approval will make Marshall University the only university in the region with a helicopter training program for pilots.

In the same meeting, the Board of Governors moved forward with the approval of construction for the Institute for Cyber Security that will begin construction on the corner of Fourth Avenue and 16th Street in Huntington, West Virginia.

These approvals aim to continue the trend of increased student retention and enrollment that began this semester with a 4.5% growth this fall with an increase of 13.7% increase of first-time freshmen.