Austin Sumter, Campus Carrier Online Editor
Construction of a new 800 square foot welcome center off of the main road to Berry started at the beginning of this month.
The idea for the new welcome center began in 2008 after Dr. George Gallagher, professor of animal science and department chair, along with faculty and staff volunteers, performed a campus needs assessment. They realized the need for more scholarship and student work funds, and they decided that the current gatehouse needed to be updated.
Fundraising for the welcome center began in May of 2013.
The new welcome center will be to the right of the current gatehouse. A road will split off of the main entrance road to lead visitors to the entrance, and another road behind the welcome center will lead exiting visitors onto the main access road that leads to the roundabout. The outside of the new welcome center will have a portico that will be high enough to reach over vans and buses and seven parking spaces for visitors who would like to come inside the center.
 |
| Ryder McEntyre, Graphics Editor |
A Berry police dispatcher will be staffed Inside of the welcome center, along with a Berry student to greet visitors, answer questions and give out maps. The welcome center will also have visitor bathrooms, chairs for guests and a coffee station. The Berry police side of the welcome center will have the same equipment as the current gatehouse and include a fire alarm, an emergency generator for all equipment and an emergency call center.
Scott Breithaupt, assistant vice president of campaign and leadership giving (91C, 96G), said that the welcome center will serve a “dual purpose where we can welcome our guests and find out who they are, but also be sure the campus is as secure as it can be.”
Visitors who come through the new welcome center will be required to swipe their license on a card scanner located on the outside of the building. This will help the Berry police identify everyone who comes through the main gate.
“We want to maintain an open campus, but identify our guests,” Berry police chief Bobby Abrams said.
The current gatehouse can take pictures of the license plates of cars going through the main gate, but the welcome center gives campus safety the ability to automatically identify every driver coming through the main gate. The information from the swiped IDs will be used for identifying those coming onto campus and not for anything else.
 |
| JoBeth Crump, Asst. Photojournalism Editor Workers begin construction on the new welcome center. The project is expected to finished by early 2015. |
With the new welcome center, traffic will better facilitated. Students, faculty and staff with decals will be able to go through the current gatehouse. The current gatehouse will be fitted with a radio frequency identification (RFID) scanner that will read the RFID chips in the new decals. Once the RFID chip has been scanned, the arm will automatically lift to let the driver through. Those without decals will need to go through the new welcome center.
Senior Jessica Krasich said that she was excited for the new welcome center so that she wouldn’t “have to sit behind visitors” coming through the main gate anymore.
Construction on the new welcome center is underway, but commuting students, faculty and staff should not expect delays when entering campus.
The project is expected to be completed by early next year.