Two winters ago, the old DeWitt Student Center was coming down, with the last wall falling in late March 2022.
Less than two years later, Northwest College is holding an open house from 2-4 p.m. …
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Two winters ago, the old DeWitt Student Center was coming down, with the last wall falling in late March 2022.
Less than two years later, Northwest College is holding an open house from 2-4 p.m. Jan. 30 for its new, $23 million student center, which has been operating full tilt since the spring semester began.
“Everything is up and running,” President Lisa Watson said at last week’s first board meeting of the new year.
Getting it all up and running, she said, has been a lot of work. A core of Sodexo employees (the company contracted for the college’s dining) and NWC phsyical plant department staff have been key, she said, as well as Sodexo staff brought in from Billings and farther to make sure the new dining hall, kitchen and coffee shop are all set for students.
Equipment had to be moved from the Heart Mountain Hall kitchen at the Park County Fairgrounds, where college meals have been cooked for the past two years, and from the Johnson Athletic Center, where dining services have been for most of the interim.
The early return of athletes allowed for a “super soft dining opening,” Watson said. “It gave the staff a chance to work out the flow.”
Full service began Jan. 13 and the college president was there to see how it all worked.
“I ate lunch there today, lots of students coming and going,” she said, adding “The food was fresh and you could tell the difference.”
Before the open house, the college is hosting a lunch for contractor Groathouse Construction and its subcontractors, who were able to complete the project on schedule and within budget.
Then, at 2 p.m., staff will welcome in the community to tour the building and have a chance to learn more about what it offers the student population and community. Light refreshments will also be served.
Totaling 38,606 square feet, the student center opened for limited use in late November before becoming fully operational this January.
Plans for a new student center date back to 2014 when it was identified as the number one priority in the NWC Facilities Master Plan. The project kicked off in 2016 with college officials working closely with the State Construction Department to design a facility that would best meet the needs of NWC students and the community. The project finished debt-free, with nearly 90% of the total contract dollars staying within the state of Wyoming, and approximately 63% remaining in the Big Horn Basin.
A capital campaign by the Northwest College Foundation provided $3.5 million to support the project and contributed an additional $1.35 million to assist with costs. Additionally, the college saw 95% of its employees donate to the student center project.
The facility was designed by Hord Coplan Macht, with Groathouse Construction in Cody responsible for construction.