HCCC to Hold Official Groundbreaking for STEM Building on May 19
May 18, 2015
County Executive Thomas A. DeGise is expected to join the College's Board of Trustees, administrators, staff and students for the event on the Journal Square Campus.
May 18, 2015, Jersey City, NJ – Hudson County Community College (HCCC) will celebrate the official groundbreaking of its new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Building at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 19, 2015. The event will take place at the site of the new building – 282 Academy Street in Jersey City, NJ.
Hudson County Executive Thomas A. DeGise will join HCCC Board of Trustees Chairman William J. Netchert, Esq., other Board members, and the College’s President, Glen Gabert, Ph.D. In addition, HCCC students and members of the College’s administration and faculty will also be on hand for the event.
The six-story, 74,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art building will be home to the College’s STEM programs. The building has been designed to include: computer labs, classrooms and student break-out rooms on each of the top five floors; student lounges; lecture halls; floors dedicated to General Science, Electronics Engineering Technology/Physics/Engineering, Biology/Microbiology, and Chemistry; a coffee shop; and exhibit space.
The new STEM Building will be adjacent to the College’s Joseph Cundari Center, which is currently undergoing a $3 million renovation, and will house the CarePoint Health Nursing and Radiography Programs at Hudson County Community College starting in September 2015.
The HCCC Cundari Center and the new STEM Building are situated on the College’s Journal Square Campus – just a few blocks from the Journal Square PATH Transportation Center.
“Hudson County Community College (HCCC) is dedicated to providing our students – and the members of our community – with the education needed for tomorrow’s STEM careers,” Dr. Gabert said. He noted that the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, STEM-related employment is projected to increase to more than 9 million jobs by 2022, and that the College’s robust STEM curriculum is just one segment of the more than 50 degree and 15 certificate programs offered at HCCC.
Mr. Netchert said the Cundari Building renovation and STEM Building construction are part of the HCCC continuing capital expansion plan, which included the opening of the HCCC six-story, 112,000 square-foot Library Building last September. (That building also includes computer labs, classrooms, tiered lecture halls, group-study rooms, a Makerspace, gallery, and 9/11 Monument.) The Facility Master Plan also calls for the opening of the Abegail Douglas-Johnson Academic Support Services program in the Library Building this year, and for construction of a new Student Union.
“This new construction endeavor – and all of those included in our capital expansion plan – require the support and cooperation of our elected officials, the College’s team of Trustees, the HCCC Foundation, everyone at the College and our neighbors in the community,” Mr. Netchert stated. We especially want to thank our County Executive Thomas A. DeGise and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.”
“This new, Hudson County Community College STEM Building is representative of our mutual commitment to the residents and businesses of Hudson County,” said Hudson County Executive DeGise. “We know that investing in the education and training of our community is one of the best ways to ensure the future prosperity of Hudson.”