HISTORIC SPACE GETS NEW ROLE AS BEAUFORT HUB
The HUB at TCL’s Beaufort, New River and Hampton campuses offers incoming students a “one stop” or streamlined experience for all their enrollment needs.
“Our goal is to make sure that potential students from all communities feel like they can come in, find everything they need in one place and leave feeling confident about their next steps,” said HUB Director Danielle Considder.
Now a renovated building on the historic Beaufort Mather Campus will make reaching that goal even easier. Moor Hall, built in 1939, is currently under renovation and will become the Beaufort HUB’s new home later this year. The building is original to the Mather School, which opened in 1868 to educate the daughters of formerly enslaved people during Reconstruction. For 100 years, this extraordinary establishment educated and empowered countless individuals. In 1986, the property was given to the state of South Carolina and eventually became TCL. In 2020, The Mather School was named part of the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network by the National Park Service.
“Preserving Moor Hall is a priority of the college because of its historical and educational significance,” Vice President for Institutional Advancement Mary Lee Carns said. The Moor Hall restoration project has been in the works for a few years, but the building was only recently identified as the perfect place to house the HUB after it began to outgrow its current space in Building 2.
Moor Hall offers 8,000-square-feet of space that is large enough to house various student services — admissions, advising, financial aid, testing and more — in one central location. As an added benefit, TCL’s Health Sciences will then be able to expand into Building 2 once the HUB relocates.
Moving the two departments into new larger spaces that can better accommodate the unique needs and features of each just “made a lot of sense,” said Nancy Weber, Vice President for Student Services.
Creating a “student-central” enrollment hub was a strategic priority as part of the Pathways to the Future: Increasing Persistence and Retention to Graduation grant that TCL received in 2019 to increase student engagement and achievement.
Research for the grant underscored the importance of offering students a clear and efficient path from their first weeks at TCL all the way through to graduation, Weber said.
“Creating a one-stop shop for enrollment and onboarding processes is vital to the success of students and can increase persistence, retention and graduation rates,” she said.
The HUB’s design also helps lessen or eliminate anxiety caused by the process itself.
“There’s always going to be some anxiety that prospective students bring with them, but eliminating what’s causing it on our end is truly the goal of the entire guided pathways program,” she said.
Considder agrees that the new HUB will facilitate better communication and an optimized experience for students.
“We see so many students who this is their first time going through college enrollment or they are a first generation college student. They’ve never had anyone to walk them through this,” she said. “We want them to walk out of here knowing exactly what their next steps are and that once they complete those steps we’re going to follow-up with them after that point.”
The overall goal is that the new, expanded HUB will help more students succeed. “We are excited to have additional resources to help more students start and finish college and excel along the way,” Weber said.
What is the HUB?
The HUB is one of the first places students visit when they enroll at TCL. The HUB offers a number of critical “first year” services for students including admissions, advising, financial aid, testing and many others. The HUB is also where students meet with their assigned Navigator, or the person who helps them with these initial first steps. Having all of these services in one place increases a student’s chances of continuing with their education and ultimately graduating.
About Moor Hall
Moor Hall (above) is currently being renovated to become the college’s new admissions and enrollment HUB. One
of the Beaufort campus’ original Mather School buildings, it has housed classrooms and also served as an administration building, a science laboratory, a library and
a bookstore since it was built in 1939.
MORE EXCELLENCE IN THE MAKING
The college recently launched The Liz and Todd Clist Center for Excellence to provide training opportunities and professional development for faculty and staff. Named for donors and longtime TCL supporters Liz and Todd Clist, the center will also house institutional research and strategic planning while overseeing online instruction. In addition, the center will offer training and meeting space as well as a recording studio for faculty and staff to make videos to use in virtual instruction. Online instruction has grown tremendously, especially since the pandemic, and the Center will focus on offering employees the latest tools to enhance the online experience for students.
