A new drop-off location has been created for carpooling students at MCCC located to the right of the main West Windsor campus entrance at Old Trenton Road.
MCCC’s president, Dr. Debi Preston, says she noted there was a problem with students being dropped off by the solar field, by the gate in front of the AD parking lot. Any students dropped off there had to cross the road to get to class.
Dr. Preston says: “They can’t get in the gate, but they pull in right before the gate. Students get out, and then the person swings around and leaves. It seemed like every time I was getting out of my car, I saw these poor students who got dropped off up there, trailing along with all their stuff, and sometimes the grass is wet, and I just [felt] bad for them…some of the [faculty] also noticed. And we were like, ‘This is unacceptable. We really need a better place, a safer spot for students to get dropped off.’”
The second week of October, Dr. Preston says she pitched the idea to Josh Johnson, Director of Facilities and Operations, noting that the main drop-off location at the time was the bus loop, located in front of the PE building, the farthest building on the east side.
Johnson says he found a traffic study completed by architects who had worked with the college a few years prior.
Johnson says, “If you go all the way around and you get to the PE circle, you can’t then come across to this side of the campus. So one of the things that they discussed was connecting or finding a way to connect the roads so people aren’t stuck going all the way around.”
After Johnson reached out to contractors, the loop was completed in four weeks—a record time for a maintenance project. Most of the work was done at night to avoid interrupting daily traffic flow.
Dr. Preston said, “It just happened so fast. I’d be up here at night, and they’d have those big lights on, and they were pouring concrete and asphalt at night. It seemed miraculous and fast how quickly that loop got made.”
Now when a driver takes a right after the Old Trenton Road entrance they will see a sign saying “Enter: Student Drop-Off.” The driver can then enter The Loop following the arrows on the road, stop at the benches and drop off the student in the car with them. When the student is safely on the sidewalk, the driver can simply go around the remainder of the loop and return to the main road, like a cul-de-sac. From the new drop off location students are closer to the center of campus not far from the BS and AD buildings.
Johnson says plans are still in the works to build a sheltered area around the benches at The Loop to protect students from rain or snow when waiting to be picked up. He says these plans should come to fruition in the second week of December.
Ling Tai, a first year student, has used The Loop and says, “Personally, I was excited when I saw it being put in…because it’s good for disabled students. My partner is disabled, and so if she’s having a difficult walking day where she can’t walk as far, or it’s more painful to walk as far, then I prefer to drop her off closer to the building where she’s going to her class. And while there is a traffic circle over by the Phys Ed building, that’s not exactly close to the entire campus. It’s only close to half of the campus. So I like this!”
To make students aware of the new loop, posters showing the location of the Loop have been placed on at least one wall on every floor of every building on the campus.
Johnson says, “People said they didn’t really know about it…If you don’t know the signs are there, you’re not going to see them.” To address the information gap, Johnson says, “I think what we’re going to do over the next couple of weeks is we’re actually going to have a temporary road construction sign, like one of those flashing lights that you see on construction sites. We will put maybe one of those by the main entrance, and [another] in the grass across from the student drop-off area.”
The National Network for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) calls for accessibility for disabled persons on college campuses. MCCC has run into issues with ADA compliance in the past particularly regarding chronically broken elevators. As previous problems have been remediated, new features such as The Loop and an additional elevator by the CM building are being added.
Dr. Preston says, “What we’re going to do in the upcoming months to a year is we’re going to do a facilities master plan, which is when you call in architects, and you have them analyze the whole campus. If you think you need any new buildings, you ask them, ‘Where’s the logical place to put it?’ If you think traffic flow is not good for either walking or driving, they’ll have a look at that…I’m going to ask them if there’s anything we can do about the fact that the parking lots are so far from the buildings. And if we can put wheelchair ramps in, specifically near the Kelsey Theatre.”
When this evaluation is conducted, Preston and Johnson say they are expecting the architects will identify new ways that MCCC can be more accessible to all students.
Johnson explains: “The main pitch is to meet ADA requirements…like with the drop-off loop project. I’m really proud of it because it came together so quickly, and it seems like it’s having a positive impact. Those are the projects that I think are the most important.”
