By GREGORY ZELLER //
Anticipating a time when students will once again be able to mix and mingle, St. Joseph’s College has announced plans for a new centerpiece student center.
The $17 million facility, to be constructed on SJC’s Patchogue campus, will be financed through bond issues. Intended to serve the college’s “growing student population” – at the start of 2020, SJC Long Island had enrolled about 3,200 undergraduate and graduate students combined – the two-story, 32,000-square-foot Student Center will mark the first new building constructed on the Long Island campus in nearly two decades.
College President Donald Boomgaarden said the St. Joseph’s community is “extremely excited” about the new student center, which will “benefit our students, faculty and staff, [and] also the entire Long Island community.”
Paul Pontieri: Community spirit.
“Although the current pandemic discourages us from being in the same physical space now, I know that this situation will soon pass,” Boomgaarden said. “St. Joseph’s wants to be ready for the future, and this student center will assist us in our goal to bring a first-class educational experience to our students – and provide a valuable resource to the greater public.”
As designed, the center will include a dining area, an art gallery, a gift shop and a chapel/office for campus ministry. Other amenities on the drawing board include lounges, computer spaces, an “e-sports unit” and conference rooms, as well as offices for faculty and student clubs.
Construction is scheduled to begin next year and be completed “within the next few years,” according to SJC, which has laid the groundwork throughout the early planning process in conjunction with Town of Brookhaven and Village of Patchogue officials.
“St. Joseph’s College has played a vital role in the revitalization of the Village of Patchogue,” Village Mayor Paul Pontieri said in a statement. “The addition of the student center creates that sense of community needed on all campuses and adds to the vitality of the Greater Patchogue community.”
