New Student Center Coming to OCC

By: Michael Lynch

A project currently in the works on Ocean County College’s Main Campus will soon make for a unique new addition to the OCC student experience.

    On Monday, January 27, 2014, it was announced that a new Student Center would be built on campus. The facility will cost an estimated $19 million to build, and is expected to be completed in about 18 months.

    The new Student Center will be 56,000 square feet and two stories tall. It will be LEED-Silver certified, ensuring that it is efficient and sustainable.

    Some of the features of the first floor of the new Student Center include a bookstore, an ATM, a Box Office and a Security Department Office. It will also have a cafeteria which seats 380 people and utilizes a free cafeteria app, and a Starbucks Coffee Bar with a seating area.

    The second floor will contain a number of rooms for clubs and activities, as well as two conference rooms and offices for Student Life and Student Affairs. It will also house a number of student lounges, one of which will seat 100 people and overlooks the seating area below it; this lounge will be used for a series of smaller talks and performances.

    The Student Center will also feature a “Noisy” Room with large-screen TVs set up for gaming, and a “Quiet” Room for students to relax and catch up on homework and studying. In addition, the entire building will be set up for multimedia, with speakers and monitors spread throughout.

    “The new Student Center will encourage students who stay on campus between classes to take advantage of its inviting atmosphere and its modern amenities,” said Dr. John H. Larson, President of Ocean County College. “It will be a good place to gather for good food and good conversation, as well as a good place to relax, read, or to study.”

    The architects of the new Student Center are Kevin Blackney and Darin Jellison from Blackney Hayes Architects (Philadelphia, PA), and the project managers for OCC include Greg Romero, Jeff Standing and Craig Gianotti from Cambridge Construction Management (Clinton, NJ).