COCHRAN, Ga. — A brand new coffee shop, more study space and computer labs. Students on the Middle Georgia State Cochran Campus say the Roberts Library renovations make life here much better.
"The first time I came in I just liked looking at it. Like, I just walked around for about an hour and just looked around because it looked so nice and it was a big difference from when I first got here," Junior Markerious Bolden said.
"It's important because we need the proper resources in order to actually succeed," Junior Mikaela Lawrence said.
Library Assistant Tammy Coody is going on 30 years working at Middle Georgia State. She says every college needs a library with updated technology and space for students.
"We needed more study rooms. We needed something to draw the students in more, and I think with a lot of the soft seating and the café we have with Starbucks in it, it has really really drawn the students in," Coody said.
Just a short walk over, Dillard Hall also got some work done. That's where Dawn Knight and Betsy McDaniel head the nursing and occupational therapy assistance programs.
"We were really excited. I mean it's state of the art as far as what the building looks like. We doubled our space as far as in our nursing lab, so we could have more students in the lab at a time," Hall said.
"The classrooms were probably most exciting for us in occupational therapy, because we had been all over campus. We've never been housed completely in one building before," McDaniel said.
The students are grateful the university is providing the resources they need to prepare for the future.
"This gives us a lot of opportunities to test out these occupations and try them out for ourselves," Occupational Therapy Assistant student Calvin Miclat said.
"It is a big deal because we're really able to focus on our learning and focus on our growth and be the best we can be whether that's in the library or in my case, in the nursing department," Nursing student Tristan Bowen said.
The $1.2 million dollar renovations were part of the $11 million project-based bond funding that the Georgia General Assembly gave to Middle Georgia State last year.