MCC's student-friendly enrollment center opens
College has come a long way since doors first opened 40 years ago
BY JAY BODAS
Staff Writer

EDISON - Middlesex County College is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its first day of classes with a new registration center.

The $250,000 enrollment center in the lobby of Chambers Hall combines academic advising, class registration and tuition payment all in one location.

Registration was previously done in Bunker Lounge at the College Center, while academic advising was done in the Johnson Learning Center, said Diane Lemcoe, dean of enrollment management, at a grand-opening ceremony last week.

"Students can now walk in, look up and print schedules, get academic advising, and register and pay for classes all in the same place," she said. "They don't have to run between buildings."

Plans for the new center were five years in the making, according to Lemcoe.

"We wanted to create a space that would be convenient, as we know our students are busy," she said. "We tested the center in August, and it was used by students to register for this semester's classes.

"But we are having the opening ceremony now," she added, "because much of the faculty was away for the summer."

Rather than build a new addition to Chambers Hall, school officials decided to take advantage of the existing space.

"It was originally envisioned as a $4 million plan to add an addition to the building," said MCC President Joann La Perla-Morales. "Instead, we remodeled existing space and were able to do it for 10 percent of that estimate, at about a couple hundred thousand dollars. Everything was done in-house by Middlesex people."

There are now eight new flat-screen, Internet-enabled computer terminals available to students in the new lobby, where they can look up schedules and find other information.

"There are also tables for students to sit down at, and the environment is now much more user-friendly," La Perla-Morales said.

MCC student Jessica Kristiansen, 20, said she found the new registration process a lot easier to use.

"It was not as well organized before, and it was smaller with some confusion and always packed with students," Kristiansen said. "Now, I was able to easily speak to an adviser, who helped me plan my schedule of classes, and I was able to register quickly."

The new enrollment center opened at the same time MCC marked its 40th anniversary of its first day of classes, which the college officially celebrated on Sept. 28.

Classes began in the fall of 1966, although the school was chartered two years prior by the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Faculty members were hired during those two years, said college spokesman Thomas Peterson.

The first year the college had 1,400 part-time and full-time students. Today's student population, according to Peterson, is more than 12,000.

Prior to the school's founding, the facility was part of the Raritan Arsenal, a large military base.

"Many of the military buildings were converted for use by the college," said college maintenance staff member Louis Egry, who attended the enrollment center's opening ceremony last week and has worked at the college since 1965.

"For example," Egry said, "the current North Hall was once a military hospital, and West Hall was the officers' club.

"But the campus is of course a lot different now," he added, "as there have been a lot of changes and new construction."