The College is currently preparing to begin construction on the relocation of the Office of Career and Professional Development to the first floor of Fanning. According to Vice President for Finance and Administration Rich Madonna, the project is in the planning phase at the moment, but “the project itself has been a priority and it’s listed in the Strategic Plan” as taking “steps to relocate career office to central campus.”
Several years ago, a 20 million gift was given to the College with money allocated for the Office of Career and Professional Development. The school is “trying to work within a 2 million budget on the career aspect,” Madonna claims.
Career services are currently housed in Vinal Cottage, across Mohegan Avenue. There is an additional satellite location in Main Street West, which is in the upper level of the Plex outside of the Harris Atrium. This space is primarily used for drop-in hours.
Persephone Hall, who has served for two-and-a-half years as the Hale Family Director of Career and Professional Development and has been on the project committee throughout this relocation process, notes that one of the benefits of career services moving onto the main campus is that students often complain about having to cross the street just to have a brief meeting or ask a single question. Hall is “excited we won’t have to worry about dual locations.” Additionally, Main Street West belongs to the Academic Resource Center (ARC), and each time career uses the space, it must be borrowed from and coordinated with the ARC. Once career services are all consolidated in Fanning, the ARC will continue to use the Main Street West space for their own purposes.
In regards to the current location of career resources, Hall states that “safety is always a concern,” particularly in reference to Mohegan Avenue. “I’ve see students run across [the road] before… during the day,” Hall recalls. Hall wants the relocation onto campus will provide both a safer and more desirable space for students to use career services and their resources.
Hall is excited about the project; “I just love the idea that the college has said the Office of Career and Professional Development is important.” Hall also is “praying” for students to use the career services more as a result of the relocation to Fanning and the proximity of the building to the path of student traffic. “I want [the new location] to be a place where students just try and come through if they have a question… to be that place where students see us and think ‘oh yeah, I want to go in there,’” says Hall. Hall is “hopeful and confident that this new location will increase student traffic.” After the construction is complete, Hall also hopes admission tours will be adjusted to show perspective students the new space and the resources available on campus.
Included in this construction is the reopening of the east entrance of Fanning, which faces gatehouse and Mohegan Avenue, and is visible to people driving up onto campus via the main entrance. Hall hopes this shows that “we,” the college, “care about your journey.”
One of the most important features of this renovation is the addition of an elevator to Fanning. This project will work with a similar timeline to the rest of the first floor renovations in Fanning, but will be funded separately. Including an elevator is part of the College’s forward-focused efforts to increase accessibility in buildings. Says Madonna, “if you’re doing this amount of work, you need to think about what should you be doing now that you’re going to do it a couple of years, and what would the cost be to do it down the road?” The elevator, according to Madonna, has been a discussed concept for Fanning for several years. As it stands, there are dean and president offices located on the second floor, and classrooms and faculty offices on the third and fourth floors of Fanning. “It’s a highly used space that’s just not accessible,” Madonna notes. Madonna continues, “I’ve seen students try to go up and down the stairs after injuring themselves, trying to get to classes on the third and fourth floor, and it’s a challenge.” This elevator will go up all four floors and will not require mechanicals that go through the roof, according to the project’s architect, Bruce Becker.
Though there are visibility and accessibility benefits noted by Madonna and Hall regarding moving career services to Fanning, this will technically be a downsize. Hall estimates that “we’ll probably be cutting our square footage at least in half, maybe even more.” There are seven staff members who work for the Office of Career and Professional Development. These seven staff members will each have an office of their own, though these offices may be smaller than the ones currently used in Vinal Cottage.
Current plans for the renovation of the first floor of Fanning include conference rooms, lecture classrooms, space for drop-ins, open work and lounging spaces, a concept similar to those found in the Walter Commons. There will also be “interview booths where students will be able to work with a career advisor or students will be able to work with an alum,” Hall claims. Students will also have space and resources for conducting skype or virtual interviews and discussions. There are also plans for the inclusion of both a gender-neutral bathroom and a lactation room.
Limited work will be done on the interior of the Registrar’s Office because the money allocated for the career project is restricted to the purposes of the Office of Career and Professional Development. However, the Registrar will benefit from any improvements in utilities on the first floor.
Demolition is planned to happen in March when students are on spring break. Construction on the project will continue through the remainder of the semester, while retaining access to the rest of the functions on other floors in Fanning, until around July. The end date for the project is August 17, by which career services hopes to be moved in and begin preparing for the arrival of students.
CISLA and Study Away offices relocated to the Walter Commons last year, which has opened up the majority of space on the first floor of Fanning for usage. As for the current functions of the first floor of Fanning, the office of the Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion has been temporarily moved to Unity House until the new “cultural center” is constructed, which, according to Madonna, is being considered for placement in Smith and Burdick.
Accounting is moving to Nichols house, where Campus Safety was previously housed. Madonna claims this move “puts accounting close to human resources” which is advantageous because “there’s a lot of paperwork that is passed between them.” Campus Safety will be relocating to Facilities, where they had been located several years ago. Campus Safety will maintain their spaces in Cro and the Gatehouse as well.
Currently, the College is unsure or not disclosing what the plans are for the soon to be vacant Vinal Cottage. Some speculate this space may be used for student housing or perhaps faculty offices however nothing has been finalized nor published. Though unsure at the moment of how Vinal will be utilized, Hall notes that the College seeks to ensure that “all the spaces are being used as effectively as possible” on campus. •
