Approximately 200 people, including the Governor, Speaker of the House , members of the regional legislative delegation, distinguished guests, students, faculty and staff of North Shore Community College gathered Tuesday to formally begin a two-year construction project which will result in the addition of a three-story ,37,000 square foot wing to North Shore Community College’s McGee Building.
The new addition at 300 Broad Street will provide 10 classrooms, a centralized Student Success Center, a testing center, Academic Technology space, a Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment, offices and a board room.
NSCC President Patricia A. Gentile said, “This groundbreaking has been a long time coming. The Lynn campus opened 30 years ago, designed to serve 1,000 students, and was immediately full to capacity. Today, over 4,000 students, or approximately half of the college’s total credit enrollment, primarily attend classes here – in Lynn. We know that it is here, in the Lynn area, where our future growth will come.
“We look forward to the expanded opportunities this new facility will provide to better serve our students, work with community partners, and contribute to the vibrancy of downtown Lynn,” she noted. “We realize this public investment will position our college to better meet the needs of the emerging knowledge economy of the North Shore. I salute that capital investment and am grateful for the continued state support of our operations and, most especially, investment in our faculty where that knowledge expertise resides as a core factor in student success.
The project is being managed by The Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM), the state agency responsible for major public building construction, integrated facilities management, and real estate services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. DCAMM selected DeIulis Brothers Construction Company of Lynn to be the project contractor and Shepley Bulfinch project designer.
Governor Baker noted that the lack of a skilled workforce is the biggest impediment to economic growth and thus he has created a Skills Task Force to address the issue. “The synchronicity of this is something we have to get right, and community colleges have an enormous role to play in the process. I look forward to this campus and the new addition continuing to give students what they need to build careers.”
Senator Thomas McGee – whose father NSCC’s Lynn McGee building is named for – used the same shovel during the groundbreaking that his father used on the original campus groundbreaking in 1983. “My father understood students in this community deserved an opportunity for a better life and recognized this community college as a road to a better future,” he said. “With the expansion of this campus we see the extension of his vision for the college and his beloved city of Lynn.”
College Board of Trustees Chair Richard Yagjian, NSCC Class of 1968, said, “It has been gratifying for me to watch the college grow from a converted schoolhouse in Beverly, to robust campuses in Lynn and Danvers and our new satellite location in Middleton. Times are very different from when I was a member of a class of 400 students. Now North Shore graduates approximately 1,000 students each year. “
The Chair of the college’s Foundation, Steve Vesey, also spoke. “This project presents the Foundation with an exciting new challenge as we will need to secure significant additional funding to provide building furnishings, equipment and technology. I would like to challenge all of you, our distinguished guests and partners, to join with the Foundation in this major undertaking to continue growing the college in Lynn, and expanding the institution’s outcomes and reach, so that the college’s next 50 years are even more remarkable than the last.”
Nathaniel Montero, a second year business administration Honors program student and President of the NSCC Student Government Association, spoke represent
Governor Charlie Baker, Speaker of the House Robert A. DeLeo, Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, Sen. Thomas McGee, and State Rep. Brendan Crighton join North Shore Community College President Patricia A. Gentile at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new wing to the college’s McGee Building on the Lynn campus.
ing the student body using the theme of opportunity. “This addition represents opportunity as opens doors to a bright future for the students who come here seeking our most powerful tool, education. It is our responsibility to share this information of OPPORTUNITY with our friends, family, neighbors, and most importantly, our YOUTH.”
The new addition has a target opening for the 2017 spring semester. “NSCC is the city of Lynn’s only institution of higher education and we embrace our role as a community resource and contributing partner. We look forward to the expanded opportunities this new facility will provide for all,” Gentile said.