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New UMKC construction aims to improve learning for students

Posted at 3:44 PM, Jul 11, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-11 18:49:48-04

Pardon our dust - that's the message the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Computing and Engineering has to students, faculty and visitors.

The school is improving its student services center by renovating a 3,000-square-foot space solely dedicated to helping underclassmen before, during and after their time at the school.

"We always talk about being pumps and not filters, which is a big engineering sentiment, "said Kevin Truman, the vice provost and dean of the School of Computing and Engineering. "The point there is that these students - in order to be successful - often times need help throughout their four years. They need counseling, they need advising, they need career and internship help. This facility will be a one-stop-shop where they can get all of those in one meeting with one set of people."

The school said the better it can serve students, the better it can prepare them for the working world.
And, since 80 percent of UMKC's School of Computing and Engineering grads stay in the metro, that can translate into a better science and tech hub for Kansas City.

The improvements at UMKC are already underway and should be done by the time the fall semester rolls around. Up next for the school -- raising money for a 45,000-square-foot engineering laboratory building.

The UMKC School of Computing and Engineering received a significant gift commitment from DST Systems, Inc., for the creation of the DST Student Services Center in Robert H. Flarsheim Science and Technology Hall on the Volker campus. To be completed this fall, this new space will be the public face of the SCE with recruiting, admissions, advising, student programming and other student services centrally located in the atrium at the main entrance on the third floor.

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Terra Hall can be reached at terra.hall@kshb.com.

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