Black Hawk College set for exciting times

Tim Wynes likes to tell a story about a Black Hawk College student who entered a college building in Moline after a major renovation project. A few years ago, just after the college’s Building 1 was renovated and updated, a young student entered the updated building, took a careful look around at the impressive updates […]

Tim Wynes likes to tell a story about a Black Hawk College student who entered a college building in Moline after a major renovation project. A few years ago, just after the college’s Building 1 was renovated and updated, a young student entered the updated building, took a careful look around at the impressive updates and asked: “Is this for me?”

The college expects to have more “Is this for me?” moments in the coming years. That’s because there will be more campus building updates, more improvements to classrooms, and more reasons to get an education on the Black Hawk campus. “The key word is ‘relevant.’ We have to be relevant to students,” said Mr. Wynes, president of Black Hawk College - Quad Cities campus, located at 6600 34th Ave. He adds that students need to feel welcome and need to find they are getting value from their time at Black Hawk. “People feel they own the school. … They have a real connection to it,” he said. Part of the battle to be relevant can now be seen on campus in a $40.8 million renovation project centering on Building 3. That 130,000-square-foot building is currently going through a major update that will include adding science and health career labs, fitness spaces, classrooms, offices and the campus police department. The new-look Building 3 will “focus on science,” Mr. Wynes said.

During a sunny, warm day on earlier this month, Steven Frommelt, vice president of finance and administration at Black Hawk College, gave the QCBJ a quick tour of work being done on Building 3. Workers were largely busy with demolition projects. The building was surrounded by fencing with a sign out front that read: “Construction area. Do not enter.” If all goes according to schedule, the fences will be down and the building project will be ready for students, faculty and staff members in the summer of 2024. “There’s a real sense of excitement about this project,” said Mr. Frommelt. That excitement can also be seen in some of the college’s neighbors. Mr. Wynes lives near the college and many of his neighbors are retirees who are sometimes weary of any projects that might increase their property taxes. “They ask ‘Is this going to affect my tax bill?’ When I tell them it will help science and math education, they say ‘Yeah, that’s what you have to do,’” added the college president. Some of the new features of the Building 3 project include: eight natural science labs; seven science prep and storage rooms; five classrooms; four health science labs; athletics/fitness facilities; the campus police department office; a training room; a computer lab; faculty offices; a food pantry; and a new entrance. But Building 3 is just one project. The college has many others in progress and in the planning stages. Some of them include: New softball and baseball fields – This $11 million, two-phase project began in July and could be complete in the spring. The college will relocate the softball field from the east side of the Quad-Cities Campus to the west side near the current baseball field. The new ballfield complex will include restrooms, concessions, batting practice cages and press boxes. The second phase will begin after the baseball and softball seasons end this spring. That phase includes press boxes at each field and a separate structure that will house restrooms and a concession booth. It’s scheduled to be done in the fall. Work on Building 2 – This $18 million project will include a major renovation of the building. It is scheduled to begin when Building 3 is complete – probably in the summer of 2024. “Right now, there are just so many uncertainties when this will start,” said Mr. Frommelt, adding that inflation and supply chain issues continue to be concerns. New Master Plan –  Mr. Frommelt added that every five years, the college has an updated master plan that examines the needs of the college. The next master plan is scheduled for the summer of 2026 and may have even more new projects for Black Hawk. But the “sense of excitement” on campus is not limited to building renovations and new ballfields. Mr. Wynes said Black Hawk has done a great job of welcoming a more diverse population of students. That includes international, African-American and Latino students.  The student population also includes many people who are raising families, working full time and trying to get in classes during their spare time. Mr. Wynes said Black Hawk works with those students to find ways to work around their busy schedules. The president has this message for those considering taking classes at Black Hawk: “This is the best place to begin to figure out what your education goals will be. … It’s a good, safe place to figure out what you want to do.” Even though Mr. Wynes is pleased that many young – and not so young – residents in the region have taken that message to heart and have enrolled at the college, he also is concerned about a large segment of the population. When students graduate high school, many of them pursue higher education, serve in the military or take on jobs that will lead to a fulfilling career. But about 34% of high school grads do none of that. They are either doing nothing or just making financial ends meet by “staffing all those fast food places,” said Mr. Wynes. To complicate matters, many of those people in the 34% are working entry-level or fast food industry jobs that are paying relatively good wages because of the ongoing worker shortage. “And if you can make enough money, you can put off those career decisions,” he added. One of the major battles that Mr. Wynes says Black Hawk – and many other colleges – is facing is to engage those young people in the 34% group and show them they can have a fulfilling career. “They need to see us as relevant,” he added.  The road to relevance often means showcasing Black Hawk’s various programs in health care, trade and technical fields, agriculture, business and other fields. Once younger people see those programs, Mr. Wynes believes many of them will have the same reaction a student once had when looking over an updated building on campus and ask: “Is this for me?”