Campus Connect is enlivening the heart of EIT’s Hawke’s Bay as students, staff and campus visitors flock to the central meeting point to socialise, eat and study.
The project’s first stage targeted the Student Centre, and the remodelled café – complete with new café kiosk, indoor dining, PC connect areas and a terrace for casual seating – has been a popular campus destination since opening early in the year.
The most recent stage, the new Atrium complex, was opened to campus users in early September, providing a walk-through connection to the library, lecture theatres, amenities and reprographics. Eighteen fixed computers provide an extension to the library’s Hub facilities and further computers are available on level 2 of the Amenities Building. There is also a printer in the Atrium.
Students can power up their own devices using outlets and wireless equipment within the complex.
Campus Connect embodies the contemporary approach to learning. Students, working individually or in collaborative groups, can use their mobile devices to access information, research and write their assignments.
Builders then moved on to the second stage, connecting the Twist Library, EIT’s lecture theatres and the Amenities Building with a double-height atrium.
Light and bright, this space features a display area for information, meet and greet and breakout areas and 24 fixed computer stations to add to those already available in the library and the Learning Hub.
EIT Tairawhiti’s former student café has been similarly transformed into The Hub – a social learning centre open to all campus users. With new furniture and 12 permanent computers, the facility is designed for socialising, dining, meeting, learning, studying, writing assignments and research.
As in Campus Connect, students, staff and the public are also able to use their own mobile devices, and charge up laptops before classes.
The upgrade provides much improved catering facilities, and new contractors are promoting the on-campus café culture by employing a barista.