STUDENT HUB UPDATE

On Feb. 21, a group of MHCC students, staff, and faculty led by John Hamblin, dean of student life, gathered to discuss plans for the future Student Hub.

The Hub will become the centralized place to go for orientation, advising, financial aid, and accessible education services. It’s going to be located where Student Services are now, in Building 12 above the campus bookstore.

Upon entering, students will be in the Orientation Center, an open computer lab space where they will learn everything needed to get started at Mt. Hood. Financial Aid will be to the left, where the business offices are currently. Advising will remain where it is now, but with fewer cubicles. Accessible Education Services will remain where it is.

The idea is to create open-concept rooms where students feel welcome. Lauren Smith, AVID/Learning Success Center manager, said the project would be based on human-centered design. A lot of Mt. Hood students, unfortunately, now get bounced around different departments when they’re trying to get started, and are often told they’re in the wrong place or have the wrong forms, and it can be isolating and traumatizing.

She said Mt. Hood must break current systems down to create equity and inclusion.

Matt Farina, director of academic advising and retention, said the current system has a lot of customer service issues and is a lot like going to the DMV (local Department of Motor Vehicles office). He wants to see that the students have the control and aren’t put off by an “authoritarian” service counter.

Hamblin shared similar thoughts: “Students are at the center. We have very rarely done things at this institution where students are truly at the center of the reason why we are doing it,” he said. “This is a design in a space that is 100 percent dedicated to putting students first and having everything center and focus on the students.”

Currently, the Hub team is working with Lauren Griswold, director of district communications, to plan the best ways to get word out to students. Once the college has a timeline of when renovations will take place, publicizing changes and progress will be crucial.

The team also wants the broader community to know what’s happening because it’s the first time something this significant in terms of MHCC renovations has happened since the Early Childhood Center was built, said Hamblin.

Farina said this sort of project could be what makes this college bond-worthy to the community. He said, “It’s a celebration of what’s possible,” in contrast to the constant doom and gloom in discussing Mt. Hood’s problematic operating budget.

Advocate Staff