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Success story: Mount Aloysius library renovation features new career center, cyber security lab

Mount Aloysius recently completed a $7 million renovation project to convert the library into the Mountie Success Commons & Library. Mirror photo by Conner Goetz

CRESSON — After almost two years of planning and construction, Mount Aloysius College will cut the ribbon today on the second and final phase of a $7 million library renovation project.

The upgraded Mountie Success Commons & Library features a new home for the Career Center, Tutoring Center and a high-tech Cyber Security Lab in addition to updated amenities for students.

Planning and design

Vice President for Academic Affairs Dave Haschak led the renovation effort after the college’s board of trustees set out to find a new home for the Career Center in late 2022.

According to Haschak, the Career Center was previously relegated to a single office in the Administration Building, without a dedicated space to host large seminars and events.

A Mount Aloysius student studies in the newly renovated Mountie Success Commons & Library. Mirror photo by Conner Goetz

“We’re feeling more demand from students for assistance in finding their first job, preparing for interviews and that type of thing,” Haschak said. “So, we decided we were going to increase the number of staff there, but also increase the services, and the last space wasn’t conducive (to that).”

After surveying the Cresson campus, college administrators settled on the

second floor of the “somewhat under-

utilized” library building, Haschak said.

This location also offers a highly visible, highly accessible new home for the center, he added.

Mount Aloysius recently completed a $7 million renovation project to convert the library into the Mountie Success Commons & Library, featuring a revamped career center and upgraded student amenities. Mirror photo by Conner Goetz

And while in the initial planning process for the career center relocation, administrators agreed that moving other student-support services to the library would be a worthwhile investment, since it puts them in one central location on campus.

According to Haschak, administrators held several focus groups with students, faculty and architects to identify what core needs the Success Commons should address.

“We talked about what the space had the potential to be, and the end product is … a culmination of all of those meetings with all of those stakeholders,” he said.

The newly minted Mountie Success Commons & Library hosts the Career Center, Tutoring Center, Advising Center, Student Testing Center, Cybersecurity Lab and the Center for Elevated Teaching & Learning for faculty professional development.

The first phase of construction, which includes the Career Center and most of the Cyber Security Lab, was completed by fall 2023, with work on the remaining services wrapped up in early fall 2024.

Mount Aloysius staff members chat in the Tutoring Center inside the newly renovated Mountie Success Commons & Library. Mirror photo by Conner Goetz

That included moving the Mount’s collection of books and reference materials from the second floor to the first floor.

Funding for the $7 million suite of renovations came from a combination of internal capital, alumni donations and a limited number of state and local grants, Haschak said.

According to Haschak, the success of the Success Commons project is apparent in the growing number of students who now use the space and the surrounding services.

“It’s really important — this is definitely more students than we would have had in here during this time last year,” Haschak said.

Career center

A view of the Mount Aloysius campus from the newly renovated library. Mirror photo by Conner Goetz

Sarah Kordish, associate director for career development, leads the Career Center and helped shape the design process for the new location in the Success Commons.

And according to Kordish, this space is much larger than her previous office in the Administration Building, with the new capacity allowing her to hire an additional staff member.

“We doubled our team,” Kordish said.

Kordish’s new Center has dedicated rooms for interviews, desktop computers for resume revisions and a “Career Closet,” which allows students to find professional attire for job fairs and interviews, free of charge.

Since the Mount has a number of students living in on-campus dorms and international students who may be unfamiliar with the area, having the Career Closet on campus relieves the stress of getting dressed for an important interview, Kordish said.

“It’s a really cool resource,” she said. The previous Career Closet was a much smaller room in a corner of the Administration Building, which made it difficult for students to locate.

Another benefit of the expanded Career Center is the capacity to hold events on-site, instead of busing students across the region for job fairs.

“We’re able to host events in our own dedicated space now,” Kordish said.

Student comfort

Making the space comfortable for students was a top priority of the renovation project, Haschak said.

This prompted the installation of a small kitchenette and more outlets to charge phones and laptops, in addition to a variety of new seating options placed strategically around the room, he said.

Students can now pick a traditional desk, group-work table or a soft sofa to sit and study.

The Success Commons also includes more than 10 new group study rooms fitted with whiteboards and display screens that students can reserve for intensive work sessions.

“One of the biggest things I enjoy here is the study rooms, it’s been huge. I know my roommates use them,” sophomore Caylie Conlon said. “It’s booked in here, you can hardly get a study room, it’s so used.”

The soundproofed rooms give a more private study area than a shared dorm or classroom.

“It’s really great for studying,” Conlon added.

Junior IT major Dillon Trausi said he appreciates the new cyber security lab, which lets students access and learn on otherwise-unaffordable high-end hardware.

The lab is complete with 25, three-monitor desktop computers and a full server room so students can learn network administration, which was financed in part by a $100,000 investment in the cyber security program earlier this year.

According to Trausi, while the previous computer lab was located in the library basement, the new ground floor location “presents (the IT program) properly.”

“There’s so much more room, it’s so much more open and we feel much more accepted on this campus,” he added. “We feel like we’ve gotten the proper area and the proper respect that this school needs for us.”

Mirror Staff Writer Conner Goetz is at 814-946-7535.

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