For the first time in over 40 years, Saint Mary’s Campus Ministry has moved its location from Regina Hall to a suite on the second floor of the Student Center.
Director of Campus Ministry Regina Wilson said the Regina Center is currently undergoing major renovations to provide space for the health science departments. In order for these renovations to happen, Campus Ministry was offered the opportunity to move its location for the foreseeable future.
“The second floor of the Student Center was identified as a very good location for Campus Ministry since it is a place where most students come for meals and for other student services,” Wilson said. “It made a lot of good sense for Campus Ministry to join those other student service offices in the Student Center and to be in a location where students frequently gather.”
Wilson and the Campus Ministry staff are very pleased with the move and believe it has benefitted the Campus Ministry community.
“Overall, some of the benefits we gain are an office space where we can work together better as colleagues, a location that is more central to campus, more meeting space for gathering with students, more possibility for networking with other student service colleagues, and shiny new offices,” Wilson said.
The Campus Ministry staff are still working together on how to invite students into their new space. In Regina Hall, there was a fair amount of student traffic passing by so it was common to meet a student interested in Campus Ministry.
“That kind of engagement with students will be a little more difficult now, but we are actively thinking about how to facilitate more opportunities for those kinds of engagements,” Wilson said.
Wilson and her staff view the change as a new opportunity and are hopeful for the future.
"We believe that all the changes aren’t worse or better, it’s just change, and we’re embracing the challenge with an eye to all the new possibilities that we can imagine and that present themselves,” Wilson said.
Campus Ministry also plans on adding new renovations to their new home in the near future.
“Eventually, we will also have a lounge when further renovation of the second floor of the Student Center occurs, and this will allow us to have those more informal encounters with students that are a big part of our ministry and outreach,” Wilson said.
Wilson also added that another bonus of the move is that students can now get to the Holy Spirit Chapel of Le Mans through the tunnel and not have to walk outside.
Wilson and the Campus Ministry staff are looking forward to the future of the program in the Student Center and will be hosting an open house Feb. 16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We hope a lot of people will come for that, appropriately distanced, of course,” Wilson said. “We'll be giving away a prize for a little contest we are having and showing people around the new space.”
