Hardin South Updated to be More Welcoming to Potential Students from MWSU Campus Watch on Vimeo.

Earlier this year, university officials hired a consulting firm to come to campus to try to bring enrollment up. One suggestion made was to update part of South Hardin and make it into a new welcome center.

Assistant Director of Admissions Valerie Martinez directly oversees the welcome center and has supervised all of the changes.

“What we’re working on right now is getting some artwork in here to kind of warm and soften up the place a little bit. We’ve done a big renovation all throughout hardin south,” said Martinez. “We’ve cleared out some trees, we’ve added some landscaping to the front of the building, we’ve added some landscaping to the south entrance. We’ve designated some parking spots for our prospective students. We’ve added some paint and we’re adding different tellevisions all up and down. We’ve got new furniture, new computer terminals, so Hardin South has been renovated not only for prospective students but also for our current students.”

The renovations cost the university $98,000, well under the $125,000 budget. The money was part of a donation by the Redwine family.

The response from potential students can’t be fully determined until tour season begins next month. Peer Counselor and Student Ambassador Hamesh Alcendor says the Student Ambassadors love the new welcome center and are looking forward to starting tours there.

“They want to kind of more engage the new students before they actually commence this tour,” said Alcendor. “So yeah, they’re very, very happy and looking to utilize it.”