Cape Cod Community Colleges hopes new STEM building will bring community together

WEST BARNSTABLE — A long-awaited science and engineering building has finally opened on the Cape Cod Community College campus, offering not only a place for students and faculty to learn and socialize, but also what could be the coolest toilet on the Cape.

The Frank and Maureen Wilkens Science and Engineering Center was officially dedicated on Sept. 29. Cape Cod Community College President John Cox said it has already attracted students from around the campus with its bright, open plan and inviting spaces in which to work and study. It features glass-walled classrooms with 20-foot whiteboards to work out math problems, huge digital screens for remote learning and wide views across campus.

“The initial idea goes back to 2006 with my predecessor, Kathleen Schatzberg,” Cox explained. “This is the center of STEM education for our region. We’re grateful for the investment so many people made to make this possible.”

Who funded $38M new science building

Funding for a new science building was included in a state bond bill but it stalled during the Deval Patrick administration, Cox said. The concept was revived under Gov. Charlie Baker in 2018 and Cox worked with local legislators to have the $38 million project included in that year’s bond bill. It passed and work began on a design.

“The state is providing $25 million, the college $3 million and a capital campaign $10 million, of which Ms. Maureen Wilkens has been a generous donor with $5 million committed," explained Cox. "Ms. Williams has gotten to know some of our graduates and developed a connection. She has given over $10 million over the years. She’s given more to a single community college than anyone outside of MacKenzie Scott (philanthropist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos).”

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Wilkens, who lives in Osterville, and her husband of 52 years, Frank Wilkens, are longtime Cape-area philanthropists. Her husband died in 2011 and Wilkens has continued to support Cape Cod Community College.

“She just gets the value of community college and she is so impassioned,” said Kathy McNamara, CEO of the Cape Cod Community College Educational Foundation. “She was here for the (September) ribbon cutting.”

The building has a low, sleek stripped-down appearance with an exterior mostly of glass and wood.

Science classes from biology to 'blue economy' will be taught here

Patrick Stone, the college’s director of communication and marketing, said the school will offer courses in the new building including biology, anatomy, physiology, chemistry, physics, robotics engineering, dental hygiene and microbiology. The school will also offer a degree in the "blue economy."

“That’s a program that includes the economics of the environment and business that is such a Cape-centric degree,” Stone said.

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The building is more inviting, Stone said.

“In the old building, they were behind doors, you couldn’t see in. Engineering and robotics was in the basement. Now you have full visibility here with glass walls,” Stone said. "This is in the heart of the campus. Even students who are not science students are seeing it and being exposed to the staff.”

Stone suggested it might entice more students into the STEM field.

“Once the photovoltaic is up, it will be a carbon-negative building,” Cox said.

Even toilet is cutting edge

The school also installed a very high-tech, award-winning toilet on the ground floor.

“In 2012 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation put out a global competition to redesign the toilet. Toilets' basic design hasn’t changed in a century,” Cox noted. “The winning proposal was from Cal Tech. It’s a closed-loop electrolysis system. It recycles a lot of the waste (into fertilizer) and recycles the water. This is the first application of the toilet in North America.”

Cape Codders will be the first to use it.

"Over the course of their experience at Cape Cod Community College, virtually everybody will be touched by this building,” Cox said. “That will be about 2,800 (students) this semester, on top of 2,800 K through 12th-graders through the Cape Cod STEM Network. There’s a lot of interest in it. Also, their teachers, through professional development, will come through.”

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Chris Clark, of the Finance and Operations Department, said the building features kiln-dried wood siding with the moisture removed that will fade to a Cape Cod-gray color. The roof and parking lot feature 12 solar panels that will generate more energy than the building consumes. Outside, there are rigid gabion retaining walls.

Technology allows for remote learning

The building features an indoor “town common” or great hall that has a giant video screen. Large D-10 screens are scattered about the building and can be used as bulletin boards or for video conferencing. Students can take classes at home and participate through the screen or be present in person.

“They all have an equal opportunity,” Stone said.

“The technology is an immense help,” said anatomy and physiology instructor Dr. Lynda LaRocca, who’s taught at the school since 1996. “The labs are more accessible and the campus can see what we do when they’re walking through. It’s light and bright and open. This building is becoming a hub.”

Contact Rich Eldred at reldred@capecodonline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reldredCodder.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod Community College Wilkens science, engineering building open