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Campus Eyes a Higher Profile: To Meet Students' Needs, Molloy Looks to Build a Public Square and Residence Hall on Rockville Centre Site

Posted on: Monday, 12 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Olivia Winslow, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Jun. 12--Molloy College, striving to meet student expectations in a competitive market as well as to boost its regional profile, is proposing to build two facilities on the Rockville Centre campus, a 72,000-square-foot building officials have dubbed the "Public Square" and its first residence hall.

The proposed facilities are part of the college's master plan for the next 15 to 20 years, which would entail another dorm, dining hall, more parking and a future gym.

The goal is not so much to expand the college to any significant degree, officials said, but to respond to present-day student expectations. The proposed 150-bed residence hall, for instance, said Molloy President Drew Bogner, reflects a desire to meet student needs. Many students today, he said, "want the experience of living in a community ... [that] allows them to be more deeply involved in what's happening on campus."

And the Public Square facility, which would have meeting and classroom spaces as well as a 550-seat theater, seeks to provide students and faculty with what officials said is a much-needed gathering place the campus currently lacks. They also see the square as a venue for community discussions of vital issues, part of what Bogner called Molloy's drive to be a "transformative agent in the community."

Dan Murphy, chairman of the college's Board of Trustees, said the Public Square represents "an ability to provide campus life experience for the students," something that many students, he said, have "resoundingly" made clear they want.

Officials at the 25-acre campus say the current proposal, submitted to the Village of Rockville Centre's Building Department on May 22, is at least two years away from being built. It is estimated to cost, along with other site improvements planned, up to $40 million, said Michael McGovern, the college's vice president of finance and college treasurer, and would be financed through a combination of fund-raising and tax-exempt bonds.

Officials at the college, an independent Catholic institution with about 3,300 students, say it currently has no dorms, though it does have living quarters for about 16 nuns. Bogner said the addition of the 150-bed dorm would not mean Molloy is seeking to recruit students from beyond Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn.

"We're not looking for the college to grow considerably, just a few hundred, even with these facilities," he said.

But any growth concerns some college neighbors.

"Traffic is going to be a problem no matter what," said Laura Mallay, president of the South Hempstead Civic Association. While praising Molloy's "open dialogue" with residents, Mallay said traffic problems persist.

South Hempstead resident Mark Goldstein, who lives across the street from the college, is not mollified by plans to increase on-campus parking. "Once they have people living there 24 hours a day, there's going to 24-hour-a-day parking problems."

Bogner said the college is awaiting the results of a traffic study to determine "whether we can alleviate traffic."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

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