Retriever Learning Center
This year, the real party is in the library.
On any given day, the Retriever Learning Center is packed. Students puzzle out problems on giant white boards. They snack and study. Or they order up pens, pencils and sticky notes from the academic “vending machine.”
After just a month, the Retriever Learning Center (RLC) feels like it’s always been a part of campus.
It opened in August on the first floor of the Albin O. Kuhn Library. And students, faculty, staff and alumni officially celebrated its opening at a ribbon cutting ceremony on September 19. The space is open 24 hours a day, secured by card entry, and provides students with the opportunity to study and collaborate at any hour – something they have desired for a long time.
“The greatest push has been from the students,” said Larry Wilt, director of the library. “They have advocated so well through shared governance for this project.”
Former SGA president Yasmin Karimian ’11, political science, was integral in making the center a reality. “Dr. Hrabowski spent a lot of time listening to us whine and complain about the need for a 24-hour space, even though I think he was extremely proud that this is what his students wanted.”
Faculty, staff and administrators recognized the need, Karimian said. It took time, however, to find the right space and the money to make it what it is today. It also took collaboration.
“SGA members had been involved in this process for a long time,” said David Hoffman, assistant director of student life for civic agency. “There was a presentation that Dr. Wilt made at an SGA senate meeting about two or three years ago, and people were really excited to see the initial mock-ups and drawings.”
Students backed up their enthusiasm by contributing funding to the project. The SGA contributed $30,000 for a second round of furniture in the RLC.
“A student explained why this is so important,” said President Freeman Hrabowski. “He said, ‘I can really say that the real party at UMBC is in the library.’”
(10/20/11)
