Midlands Technical College (MTC) opened its $14.5 million Learning Resource Center on the college’s Beltline Campus. Representatives from local, county, and state government helped cut the ribbon before touring the 43,000-square-foot facility, the newest building on any Midlands Technical College campus.

“We are so proud to offer this beautiful new facility to our students and the community,” said Midlands Technical College President Dr. Ronald L. Rhames. “You could call this center the new ‘front door’ to the MTC Beltline Campus. It is specifically designed to provide a space for our students that encourages collaboration, as well as educational and personal success. Students can come here and have access to all the great resources MTC offers, under one roof.”

The Learning Resource Center replaces the 24,000-square-foot Beltline Campus Library constructed in 1967. Designed by Quackenbush Architects + Planners to be a collaborative and technology-focused learning space, construction on the new facility began in June 2015.

MTC Library Director Florence Mays said giving students access to the latest educational technology not only prepares them for success in the classroom, but for success further down the road.

“This building gives our students a lot more access to technology,” said Mays. “We live in a technological society, so when students are able to access and understand the latest technology, it really puts them at an advantage when they graduate and move into the workplace.”

The Learning Resource Center has classrooms, study rooms, dedicated tutoring space, and a variety of other student-resource rooms spread throughout its three floors. More than 100 computers are available to students throughout the two levels of the main library area.

Thanks to support from Bill and Lou Kennedy of Nephron Pharmaceuticals, the Learning Resource Center is also home to the William Jerry Wood Life Skills Center on the Beltline Campus.

In addition to Rhames, Powers, and Mays, other college and community partners who helped officially open the Learning Resource Center were: 

• Greg Pearce, Richland County Council
• Paul Livingston, Richland County Council and MTC Director of Community Development
• Gerald Seals, Richland County Administrator
• Chris Folsom, Deputy Lexington County Administrator
• Rep. MaryGail Douglas, Fairfield County Delegation
• Bertha Goins, Vice Chair, Fairfield County Council
• Tameika Isaac Devine, City of Columbia
• Ron Drayton, MTC VP for Academic Affairs
• Nicole McCune, MTC Student Advisory Council Chair

Midlands Technical College (MTC) is a comprehensive, multi-campus, public, two-year college serving Richland, Lexington and Fairfield counties of South Carolina. The fifth-largest provider of higher education in South Carolina and the largest provider of transfer students to four-year colleges and universities in the state, MTC enrolls approximately 15,000 credit students annually. The college’s Corporate and Continuing Education program, one of the largest and most comprehensive in the Southeast, annually has 15,000 enrollments and provides continuing education to hundreds of area businesses each year. MIDLANDSTECH.EDU