Harford Community College has a new addition to its campus — the Chesapeake Welcome Center, which will serve as the “front door” to the college, according to Theresa Felder, the college’s president.
The 78,000-square-foot center is almost twice the size of the college’s previous Chesapeake Center. With the extra space, the building will house a variety of services for current and prospective students, including admissions, workforce and continuing education, finances, dining, and a theater.
Felder said the college wanted to ensure that all front-line services were housed in one building, making it easier for students to navigate.
“We are really working to become one door [and] breaking down those silos for the benefit of our students,” she said.
The center features a 10,000-square-foot conference center with rooms in three sizes: large, medium and small. Each conference room is equipped with projectors and a projector screen, in addition to whiteboards in the smaller rooms. The large and medium rooms can also house banquets or standing-room-only events, fitting 190 to 740 people. Anyone can reserve the conference spaces regardless of affiliation with the college.
“There is a major need for conference space in the county,” Felder said. “The fact that we are meeting that need for the county as a community college, we take our responsibility to serve the community very seriously.”
Dining services received an upgrade within the new building, with space to service the community both internally and externally. The renovated kitchen allowed for the addition of up-to-date appliances, a walk-in fridge and a fryer.
The Chesapeake Theater also received an update and will now hold up to 429 visitors. A box office, dressing rooms, a green room, an inset design space, costume closet, and an orchestra pit were added.
Katie Reynolds, director for admissions, and Tony Hinton, associate vice president of operations, said the new building has given their offices one centralized space to work out of, which has made them more accessible to students.
“We have a lot of space where we can work with a lot of students and have them spread out in private spaces,” Reynolds said.
Mitch McEvoy, a first-year business administration major at the college, said when current and prospective students walk into the center, she believes they will be able to tell its a safe space.
“Being a college student, especially first time, it’s already stressful,” she said. “Even me, myself, I was struggling trying to balance my work schedule, school and all these other things. Knowing that in the future, students who are also dealing with something similar to that, they’re going to be able to come here and know all of the stuff that they need is in one place.”
As a Harford County resident, McEvoy added she has seen firsthand how the college has ingrained itself in the community and believes the center will be the next step in continuing that partnership. She is most looking forward to observing artwork within the new art gallery and attending plays at the theater.
Though the space is already open to the public, Harford Community College will host an open house for the new center Jan. 25 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. as a formal introduction to the community. The building sits at 401 Thomas Run Road.
Have a news tip? Contact Shaela Foster at sfoster@baltsun.com or 443-826-5894.
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