Local dignitaries helped take part in a ribbon-cutting Oct. 9 to open the newly-renovated James C. Mitchell Student Resource Center at the La Plata campus.
The center previously served as the Health Technology Building.
The center will serve as a welcome center and provide support services for new and current students to access and interact with the college’s Admissions and Advising offices, the Hawk Hub, counseling and disability support services and the Testing Center.
“Moving these services into the new Student Resource Center has also created space to launch several other new and exciting initiatives that you will be hearing about over the next year,” CSM President Yolanda Wilson said in a news release. “In the queue are a new multicultural center, a Center for Career Development and Success, an expanded footprint for the Southern Maryland Studies Center, a writing resource center, and the Michelle Simpson Center for Teaching and Learning.”
Wilson also acknowledged James C. Mitchell, the college’s former neighbor for whom the center is named.
“In 1965, the land we stand on today was purchased from the Mitchell family, and their family estate still surrounds this campus,” Wilson said, adding the college paid $550 an acre for the 173.6 acres that encompasses this campus for a total of $95,529.50.
Wilson added that while serving Charles County as a judge and newspaper owner, Mitchell donated a legacy gift to the college to establish scholarships for nursing students.
To honor Mitchell at that time, the former Health Technology building was built in 1988 and dedicated to him. The nursing and health classes previously taught at the HT building were relocated to the Center for Health Sciences on the Regional Hughesville Campus in 2023.
“As the CSM Board of Trustees, we stand on the shoulders of so many dedicated former and current board of trustees whose strategic visioning and deep commitment to keeping education accessible and affordable has helped to guide CSM toward so many important milestone celebrations, such as today’s ribbon-cutting,” Trustee Chair Shawn Coates said in the release. He added that “one such trustee” was his grandmother Veronica Coates who had served as a college trustee from 1976 to 1993, including five years as vice chair and two years as chair.
With the project’s funding shared between the state and local jurisdictions, Coates reported that 75% of the funding was provided by the state and the remainder by the Charles County commissioners.
Maryland Del. Edith J. Patterson (D-Charles) offered congratulations on behalf of the Southern Maryland Delegation of lawmakers and pledged to continue to support CSM at the state level with a student focus, much like the SR Center.
“We like to hear the issues and concerns of our student population [during Student Advocacy Day],” she said, “and what’s critically needed for them to succeed.”
CSM Division of Student Equity and Success Vice President Tracy Harris, who oversees the services that will be offered at the SR Center, provided statistics on student services provided at the La Plata campus.
He said that over the past year, the enrollment team took 782 calls, registered 725 students, responded to more than 8,000 emails, evaluated almost 1,500 transcripts, and met with another 535 students. The Admissions Services Center team received and answered more than 21,200 calls with 7,115 emails sent to students.
“Imagine how many more students we can help in this centralized location,” he said.
To help Harris further explain the impact of the SR Center was second-year psychology student Mohammed Houmran, who works at the Hawk Hub, which serves as a central location for most services students might need.
“The Hawk Hub simplifies the entry process for students,” he said, and added that last year the Hawk Hub staff helped more 49,000 students with 2,800 of those in person. “We help students like me bounce back from unexpected circumstances and unfortunate setbacks. We empower students and equip them with life skills and teach them self-advocacy, so they not only help themselves but can help others now and moving forward.”
To view photos of the James C. Mitchell Student Resource Center and ribbon-cutting, go to csmphoto.zenfolio.com/p857621533.
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