PALM DESERT -- California State University, San Bernardino’s Palm Desert Campus will celebrate another milestone in its development at a "topping off" ceremony today.

University leaders and community members will gather at the campus at 10 a.m. for placement of the final steel girder on the Indian Wells Center for Educational Excellence.

The building is the second of three planned for the initial phase of the branch campus on Cook Street north of Frank Sinatra Drive.

"This marks another step in realizing our commitment to creating a full campus for the Coachella Valley," CSUSB President Albert Karnig said.

The $10 million structure will house the Palm Desert Campus’ teacher preparation program and a 300-seat theater complex, said Fred Jandt, campus dean. It is expected to be completed in time for the start of the academic year next fall, he said.

The "topping off" today is patterned after a Medieval Europe ceremony that marked placing the final beam on a building. Guests will be able to sign the beam in indelible ink before it’s hoisted up on the two-story building, Jandt said.

Speakers at the event will include university officials and desert residents Betty Barker and Richard Oliphant, co-chairs of the capital campaign to raise $30 million for the three buildings on the Palm Desert Campus.

The Indian Wells Center for Educational Excellence is named after the city of Indian Wells, which contributed $5 million toward the cost.

The rest of the funding included $3 million from the Walter and Lenore Annenberg Foundation and contributions from Jean Hardy, the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation and Palm Desert National Bank.

The building’s completion will enable the university to consolidate its current desert classes and programs at the Palm Desert Campus, Jandt said.

Some classes currently are held in temporary buildings on the College of the Desert campus -- the site of the temporary Palm Desert campus the university operated since 1986.

"This is the last year those will be in use," Jandt said.

Fund-raising for the third building has started, he said.

The university initially projected completing the third building in 2005 or 2006 but the start and completion dates will depend on when the money is raised, Jandt said.

The third building will house the campus’ nursing and allied health programs, Jandt said.