As the fall semester began last week at Flathead Valley Community College, a large-scale project expected to enhance student learning and provide greater opportunities for community usage continued to take shape on the edge of campus. 

The college is in the midst of constructing the Paul D. Wachholz College Center. The $26-million building is set to include a gymnasium and fitness center, a 1,000-seat theater, small recital hall, classroom, art gallery, and beyond the walls of the building an outdoor amphitheater space. A soft opening of the building is expected in spring 2022, FVCC President Jane Karas said on a tour of the building. 

“This will be a great opportunity for our students, for the college and for the community as a whole,” Karas said. 

The college was able to raise $18 million and obtained a $9.75 million loan for the project. Swank Enterprises is the general contractor and Cushing Terrell is the architect. 

“We raised $18 million in 18 months,” she noted. “That really demonstrates the need when we were able to raise funds that quickly and as the valley grows this will be even more important.”

The college is still fundraising for the center offering naming rights for seats in the theater and wings of the building. 

Inside the College Center, the performance hall will become the home of the Glacier Symphony. 

Karas says the benefit to the Flathead Valley as a whole will be the ability to host larger events such as concerts and bring in business conferences. The largest spaces in the Valley are currently the auditorium at Flathead High School with roughly 700 seats, the Whitefish Performing Arts Center with 450 seats followed by the O’Shaughnessy Center with 300 seats. 

“Partnering with hotels and restaurants, especially during the shoulder season, to bring more people into the valley to stay here and help support our local economy is something we think is another benefit of this building,” Karas noted. 

AROUND CAMPUS last week there was excitement as students and staff returned to primarily in-person classes. In spring of 2020, the campus went to fully online courses, and the 2020-21 academic year followed with a mix of in-person and online courses in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Total enrollment at FVCC in the fall of 2019 was about 2,400 students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. It remains to be seen how the pandemic and worker shortage might impact enrollment during this academic year. 

“It’s always a challenge for community colleges when the unemployment rate is low,” Karas said. “I think we will be seeing more students, but they’ll be taking fewer credits. So many of our students need to work while in school and when people are working they just don’t have the time to take as many classes.” 

FVCC has created programs designed to train students for careers in manufacturing or construction trades, and in health care thereby creating a pipeline of workers for local employers. But when certain industries like construction have a high need for workers wages for those jobs increase meaning that students often head straight from high school to work rather than seeking further education, she noted.

WHILE FVCC is looking toward the future of providing more opportunities for students with its newest building, the college is also making changes to better serve students now. This fall student support services — admissions, advising, financial aid, career counseling and tutoring — moved into the Learning Resources Center building providing easy access to all the programs. A large space inside the building that previously housed the library is also being converted into a lounge area designed to encourage students to gather, and student engagement programs like an outdoor family night are planned as a way to provide a community atmosphere for non-traditional students who have families. 

Morgan Ray, who recently became the director of library services after serving as admissions coordinator for FVCC, says the college is focused on assisting students to be successful.

“We want students to have a community and be connected to campus,” she said. “We want students to have the Flathead community spirit. We’re really focusing on student engagement.” 

These new programs and changes only add to the number of support services FVCC already has for students geared toward the classroom like free tutoring for those who qualify along with assistance in specific subject areas.