Over the summer, a flurry of renovations started across the Hamline campus to prepare for the upcoming fall semester. Included in those are renovations to the Giddens /Alumni learning center (GLC). The main change in the building is the new Undergraduate Admissions Office, which replaces the Hamline Admissions House.
“As soon as I saw the house across the street, the first thing that struck me was its completely physically inaccessible.” Vice President of Enrollment Management Mary Jensen said.
The previous admissions house sits across Snelling Ave., while the new site is inside the old Carnegie library entrance portion of GLC.
“It’s going to be great for prospective students and current students that it’s right in GLC with those two wings and faculty and classrooms, as they come to campus, they’ll see students right away,” Jensen said.
Having the admissions center in such a central part of campus provides easy access for prospective students and student workers, as well as integrating Undergraduate admissions into campus life.
“This gets our team on campus so that we’re also aware of what's happening,” Director of Undergraduate Admissions Jennifer Olsen Krengel said.
Previously, the isolated campus house made it difficult for prospective students to experience the campus before taking tours.
“A lot of our work is externally focused, and it felt a little bit like we were disconnected from the campus,” Krengel said.
The move to GLC provides centralized access to student and faculty life at Hamline. However, with the move into the new space, there was concern regarding the classroom and faculty office space being infringed upon.
“There were six faculty who still had offices in that space; they were relocated to the second floor of GLC,” Jensen said.
The faculty disruption was planned to take place at the beginning of the project in order to allow more time for readjustment and settling into different spaces.
As for the previous Undergraduate Admissions House, it will remain Hamline property. No official plans for the property have been made at the time of publication.
“That house will now be part of phase three. No decisions have been made, and it will continue to be Hamline property until a decision is made how to best use the space down the road,” Jensen said.
The previous Faculty Lounge space has remained open as a hospitality space for people to continue to come and hang out.
“Our intent is to welcome faculty into the building, to grab a cup of coffee, visit with admissions counselors or prospective students,” Jensen said.
Students and faculty can now visit the new space in the entrance to the old Carnegie Library space in GLC.