Bridgewater, Va. – After a long 21 months, the John Kenny Forrer Learning Commons will open its doors to the campus community on Monday, Feb. 24. There will be an afternoon reception from 1 to 4 p.m.

Students learned of the opening from a campus-wide email sent by Bridgewater College President Dr. David Bushman. The email directed students to, “Get to know the resources for learning and collaboration that you’ll have available in the Forrer Learning Commons. Explore the study spaces that might soon be your second home on campus. Smitty’s café will also be open for you to purchase Starbucks drinks and other goodies!”

The space features numerous study rooms, as well as an audio production room, a space to practice presentations, classrooms, study spaces, and a cafe.

In addition to Library Services occupying the building, on-campus student services like The Writing Center, Career Services, the Digital Scholarship Gurus and the IT Center are in the process of moving their operations to the new building.

The opening of the fully-functioning Learning Commons has been long-awaited by the entire community. The planning of a new building began in 2014, and groundbreaking followed graduation in May 2018 with an anticipated opening date of Fall 2019; however, numerous delays hampered the project.

Andrew Pearson, director of the Forrer Learning Commons, cited over 80 foul weather days in 2018, including an incredibly rainy summer, that led to construction delays. Along with the variability of the weather, Pearson also said that delays were due to, “the complexity of the project itself…and many of those things are outside of your scope of control.”