BUTTE – Staff members at Montana Tech are getting ready to move into the Butte campus’s newest building, which was a major project to complete over the past few years.
“This is the large capital project ever undertaken on our campus both in terms of physical size and cost, so it’s a 100,000 square foot facility, roughly, $24 million project,” said Montana Tech Foundation Chief Executive Michael Barth.
The Student Success Center was designed to appeal to students’ needs.
“We believe this will create a new heartbeat for our campus. A place where students will be excited to come enroll at Montana Tech, become part of the Oredigger experience,” said Barth.
The first two floors will include dorms to house more than 160 students. The building will house essential students services, study areas and places to socialize.
“You know, 80 percent or more of your college life is not going to be spent in the classroom so it’s important to have a good experience, a good environment where you can have a good experience and a place where you can get help outside of a classroom,” said Barth.
Montana Tech started thinking about this Student Success Center back in 2011, then they went out and toured other campuses around the country that had similar living and learning centers so they could learn how to do this project right.
“We made some visits to other college campuses — The University of Kentucky, Nevada-Reno and Missouri Science and Tech — to kind of learn from those institutions,” said Barth.
Students will start moving in by August.
