By Sherry Sokolowski
While the new Grand Rapids Community College Lakeshore campus is still under construction, Wi-Fi is now available to students on the west side of the parking lot.
For the past year, GRCC has been working on the conversion of the old JCPenney building into a new, united Lakeshore campus. This building is located in Holland at 12331 James St.
The massive 50,000-square-foot building is undergoing renovations to add classrooms, laboratories, and a variety of student support services such as counseling, testing, and a satellite library. The building is being used mainly for the schools of Workforce Development and Arts and Sciences.
“There are many who do not know that GRCC first offered courses along the lakeshore in the late 1980s,” said Daniel Clark, dean of GRCC Lakeshore Campus and Academic Outreach. “The Lakeshore Campus has been offering courses at multiple locations since 2006. The farthest distance apart being nine miles. Lakeshore residents are very excited about consolidating everything into one facility. Finally, all courses and student support services at one location.”
The newly installed Wi-Fi signal is directed toward the west side of the building, which is the side that faces U.S. 31. Students are able to log into the Wi-Fi using the same usernames and passwords they use for their MyGRCC accounts.
The construction of the building is expected to be completed before the fall 2021 semester, and students will be able to take classes there.
This is not the only effort the college has made to increase technological resources for students. GRCC has expanded its Wi-Fi access to a parking lot behind the Administration Building located on the DeVos Campus in Grand Rapids, too.
Additionally, GRCC collaborated with the Kent District Library to enable Wi-Fi in the parking lots of branches found across the county. This came about due to the Grand Rapids city government’s pilot program to install Wi-Fi hotspots in 10 city parks.
