The National Park College (NPC) Board of Trustees celebrated a year of progress Wednesday during their regular monthly board meeting. The meeting was held virtually via Zoom.
Discussion regarding the campus master plan began in 2016 and the College is nearing completion of the second phase of the plan. NPC President, Dr. John Hogan reflected on the past year’s growth regarding physical campus facilities. “Reflect on the leadership that you’ve invested, the authorship or architecture that the students helped create, and the outstanding efforts of our staff and faculty to achieve what we have just in this past year,” he said.
Hogan noted the campus opened a new entryway, the Student Commons, and the new quad last August. The Oaklawn Foundation Gymnasium, new sports medicine room, weight room, and batting cages were completed last November. The new Marine Technology Center opened in January along with expanded parking behind the Frederick Dierks Center for Nursing and Health Sciences. Students moved into Dogwood Hall last week, after breaking ground July 2019. The Hospitality and Tourism Center is open for classes, a project made possible thanks to a $400,000 Oaklawn Foundation grant awarded last summer. A new physics/engineering lab and a new chemistry lab in the Lab Science building are nearly complete. The College broke ground on the labs in February. The NPC Makerspace will be completed in the coming months.
Hogan remarked he wanted to be intentional about determining what is next for NPC. “That responsibility to face the future has not gone away, and the theme of that will be to continue to listen. Continue to listen to our students, our faculty and staff, to our board and our community about the kind of college they want NPC to continue to become.”
Hogan said he hoped to begin the budget and strategic planning process this semester and added, “I can promise you that it will be ambitious. It will be thoughtful. It will be comprehensive. We will ensure that our constituencies, especially our students, are heard.”
“This is going to be an exciting time as NPC continues to build on the physical infrastructure, the employment infrastructure, and the strategic groundwork that we’ve laid up until this point,” Hogan added in closing.
Board chair, Forrest Spicher added, “All of the stakeholders have listened to the students and they have been the driving force in transforming this campus.” He noted the changes to campus give it the look and feel of a small university. “I think we will see the benefits this year and the years to come. In spite of a pandemic, as Dr. Hogan said, the ‘Nighthawk Grit’ is alive and well.”
