April
2 ,
2004
Admission
Office to Get Much-Needed Makeover
In early April, the
College's admission staff will vacate Newhall to make way for
substantial and much-needed renovation. They will spend the
next seven months in temporary housing in the basement of Wilder
Hall, the doublewide trailer near Pratt Hall, and a gazebo
to be erected between the trailer and Pratt.
According to Diane
Anci, dean of admission, Newhall was last renovated some 25
years ago. Since then, the number of prospective students and
their families who come to campus has nearly doubled, and the
building is too small to accommodate all visitors to the College.
The two primary aims
of the renovation are to expand the living room, where visitors
peruse information about the College and wait for interviews
and tours, and to create a space for the daily or twice-daily
information sessions the admission office conducts for prospective
students and their families.
The renovation, designed
by Dennis Dowd of Ai Architects of Essex, Connecticut, and
financed largely by an anonymous donor, will address both these
space concerns. The plans include a new and expanded living
room to be built on the first floor and a handsome octagonal
room added to the back of the building that will hold the information
sessions. Both new spaces will be outfitted with new tablet
computers connected by a powerful wireless network that will
envelop the building. Students can fill out their information
on the tablet, their parents can check their email, and interviewers
can even record handwritten notes about their interviews. Online
videos, special web content, and current Mount Holyoke headlines
will also be fed into the tablets in real-time. The information
room will have advanced projection, sound, and computer systems,
and various media sources, including a DVD player and cable
television.
While Anci and her
staff recognize the challenges of working through their busiest
time of the year in the cobbled-together space near Pratt,
she said, "we are very grateful to the donor and the College
for the wonderful new addition and the opportunity to expand
our outreach to prospective students."
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