The health center will expand in one of several construction projects that will begin this spring and summer.
Renovation of the Ambler Health and Wellness Center will begin when materials become available, which likely will be before the end of the semester, according to Chief Administrative Officer Rich Péwé.
“Over the 11 years that I have been here, we have noticed a steady incline in the numbers of students and staff who access health services, both medical and counseling services,” Director of Health Services Brock Lutz said. “We are just running out of room to meet with people and there are many parts of our beautiful building that certainly need to be repaired or renovated.”
An addition onto the back of the health clinic will house an additional examination room and two extra offices to be used as overflow rooms for medical examinations or counseling. A new large multipurpose room will be used for group therapy, staff meetings, chiropractic services, and other services.
Built in the late 1800s, the health center is one of the oldest buildings on campus. The building was a gift to the college in 1919 by Judge William E. Ambler, a Hillsdale alumnus and trustee. With the increase in patients, including students, staff, and staff families, the health center needs more rooms, another nursing station, and more counseling rooms, according to the center’s staff.
The project will also include the renovation of the upper level of the health center, and the replacement of all the building’s windows. A new entrance, including a wheelchair-accessible ramp, will replace the current entryway, creating more space for parking.
The renovations will likely finish in the fall, Péwé said.
“This will help our current operations by having a more efficient flow for patients who are accessing medical services,” Lutz said. “We are always talking about the importance of the whole person living and know that to be truly healthy we need to focus on the physical, emotional, mental, social, behavioral, and spiritual well-being of each person we see.”
Other construction projects around campus will begin soon as well.
After the college finishes construction of the new Contact Center in downtown Hillsdale, it will renovate the basement of Kendall Hall to include about 13 more faculty offices in order to create enough office space for current and newly-hired faculty members.
“We already have three offices down there and we will get a total of 16 office spaces for faculty so we have a little bit of room to grow,” Péwé said.
Péwé said the security office will move from its 25 Galloway Drive location to the lower level of the Knorr Student Center, making it more accessible to students.
“Students won’t have to walk across the street to get to security,” Péwé said.
Between this spring and June, the marketing department will move from the third floor of Moss Hall to the The Stanton Foundation Center for Classical Education, formerly known as Mauck Elementary School, joining the offices of the Barney Charter School Initiative.
“The long-term plan is to build a media building there with a much bigger studio for the marquee teams that we would build near the Mauck School,” Péwé said.
Additionally, Péwé said there are plans for the bathrooms of Olds Residence to be renovated this summer.
“It’s an older building and I think the bathrooms are where you notice that the most,” Olds House Director Rachel Marinko said.
Péwé said he expects the Olds renovation to be finished before the beginning of the 2022-2023 academic year.
