FROM THE DESK of the PRESIDENT

Dear Friends,

Higher education is so flooded with the terms “innovation” and “transformation” that it is difficult to arrive at tangible applications of these concepts in our day to day lives as educators, learners, and advocates for public higher education, however, the rehabilitation of the George T. Potter Library, and the addition of the Learning Commons, present our campus with tactile representations of both. This fall we broke ground on the new Learning Commons. This ambitious capital project, which includes a rehabilitation of the George T. Potter Library and a Learning Commons addition, first started in 2015. As cranes and dozers and an array of other demolition and construction equipment and professionals now occupy the Potter Library area, it is remarkably exciting to bear witness to the yield of the last four years of planning.

In a 2019 issue of College and Research Libraries News, author Charles Kratz wrote, “In these times of libraries being marginalized in the digital age, it becomes most critical to maintain the importance and relevance of academic libraries as places of intellectual life and centers of activity,” adding that “links to other campus users and units help fight the marginalization of libraries, provide for greater collaboration on our campuses, and furnish space to accommodate different types of learning…Information commons projects require the desire to rethink service delivery models and to create new synergies and relationships.”

In the spirit of Kratz’ words, at Ramapo the new Library/Learning Commons has been designed to serve as a hub for activity and as a mechanism for connectivity to a variety of resources, information, and most important, to one another.

If you have not yet committed your own time or resources to this project, please consider doing so. Your gift will assist the College in bringing this truly innovative and transformative project to our students.

Peter P. Mercer, Ph.D.

President, Ramapo College of New Jersey