{"id":3591,"date":"2016-10-28T10:14:11","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T14:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/?page_id=3591"},"modified":"2016-10-28T13:44:43","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T17:44:43","slug":"south-hall-science-building-opens-classes-to-start-in-january","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/november-2016\/south-hall-science-building-opens-classes-to-start-in-january\/","title":{"rendered":"South Hall Science Building Opens; Classes to Start in January"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Front

Front row, from left, holding scissors: Yasmin E. Hernandez-Manno, MCC trustee; Blanquita Valenti, freeholder; Ronald Rios, freeholder director; Dorothy K. Power, MCC board chairman; College President Joann La Perla-Morales; Robert Burke, a science major from the class of 1970 who became a pediatrician; Anissa Bousellam \u201914; Mark McCormick, MCC\u2019s vice president for academic and\u00a0student affairs; and Linda Scherr, dean of arts and sciences. They are surrounded by other County and College officials, as well as faculty and staff in the Natural Sciences Department. Classes begin in the building in January.<\/p><\/div>\n

For the second time in less than a month, Middlesex County College formally opened a new building. Called\u00a0South Hall, the two-story, 36,000-square- feet facility includes 14 science labs dedicated to general biology,\u00a0chemistry, organic chemistry, genetics, microbiology and general science. Classes will begin in January of\u00a02017.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all excited about the new facility,\u201d said Parag Muley, chair of Natural Sciences. \u201cIt looks spacious\u00a0and inviting. Students and faculty are going to find it to be state-of- the-art, and a really good educational\u00a0space. It\u2019s going to be equipped with the latest and the greatest equipment for training. We are eager to get\u00a0started. We can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Hall, which cost $18.2 million, was funded through the State of New Jersey\u2019s Building Our Future\u00a0Bond Act, along with a 25 percent match from the County.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took many steps to complete this project and to arrive at this day,\u201d said Middlesex County Freeholder\u00a0Director Ronald Rios, who spoke at the ribbon-cutting. \u201cSouth Hall has been designed as a facility where\u00a0students can experience in-depth, hands-on training in a wide range of scientific studies. It illustrates our\u00a0shared dedication to offering quality education in state-of- the-art facilities to prepare our students for growing\u00a0and in-demand fields.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy fellow freeholders and I will always be proud to contribute to the education of Middlesex County, and are\u00a0proud to have contributed $3.4 million to the project, to match the funds the College received from the State\u00a0of New Jersey\u2019s Building Our Future Bond Act. And building our future is exactly what we are doing. Today\u2019s\u00a0students are tomorrow\u2019s leaders. One day, the scientific breakthroughs made in these laboratories may go\u00a0on to change our world for the better.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Hall sits on land that held two smaller buildings, South 1 and 2, which\u00a0predated MCC when the site\u00a0was an Army Arsenal. South 1 was used as a maintenance shop for the Arsenal and South 2 was a tank\u00a0repair shop. When the College took them over, they became classrooms and student support offices. Most\u00a0recently, they were the temporary home for the James Monroe Elementary School when a fire destroyed its\u00a0building in 2014.<\/p>\n

Dorothy K. Power, chairman of the MCC Board of Trustees, recalled the history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a difference from the old Arsenal that once occupied this space, and in the interim, provided\u00a0classrooms for our young James Monroe Elementary School students and teachers in grades 1-5 starting on\u00a0a on a cold windy day in March 2014,\u201d she said. \u201cThe change that has taken place on this plot of land over\u00a0the last six decades is remarkable. On behalf of our Board of Trustees, congratulations to all who made this\u00a0happen and good luck to all the students who study here.\u201d<\/p>\n

College President Joann La Perla-Morales echoed her remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the old South Halls have gone, our connection to the past is constant,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat connects\u00a0the first days of the college on the Arsenal site to our present is the continuing commitment of everyone at\u00a0the College to provide access, opportunity and excellence for the residents of Middlesex County. We are\u00a0most grateful to both the County of Middlesex and the State of New Jersey for making the funding available\u00a0for this beautiful facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September, MCC opened West Hall, a new enrollment center. Donald Drost, executive director of facilities\u00a0management, said the College will submit the two buildings for LEED certification. LEED, or Leadership in\u00a0Energy and Environmental Design,\u2028is an internationally recognized mark\u2028of excellence that provides\u00a0building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable\u00a0green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. Crabiel Hall, which was\u00a0completed in 2011, received a Silver ranking and Mr. Drost expects West Hall and South Hall to earn a\u00a0Silver or Gold mark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the second time in less than a month, Middlesex County College formally opened a new building. Called\u00a0South Hall, the two-story, 36,000-square- feet facility includes 14 science labs dedicated to general biology,\u00a0chemistry, organic chemistry, genetics, microbiology and general science. Classes will begin in January of\u00a02017. \u201cWe\u2019re all excited about the new facility,\u201d said Parag Muley, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3589,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3591","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3591"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3596,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3591\/revisions\/3596"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}