College of Marin unveils $82M student center

College of Marin has opened its new student hub after two years of construction and $82 million in spending.

The three-story building, called the David Wain Coon Center for Student Success, occupies about 86,000 square feet along College Avenue in Kentfield. Students have been flocking to sunny window seats in the spacious second-floor library and the outdoor patio study areas, all with views of Mount Tamalpais.

“It’s not bad,” said Tom Rataiczyk, 45, of Greenbrae as he sat on the third-floor patio scanning notes from his sociology class. “It’s a great place to hang out and spend time.”

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, followed by an open house with refreshments and tours, said Jonathan Eldridge, the president of the 100-year-old college.

“This is the last major new construction out of Measure B, the voter-approved bond from 2016,” Eldridge said. “It has largely built out this campus.”

The building’s namesake, the college president from 2010 to 2023, played a large role in shepherding Measure B projects like the student center.

“It really is the living room of the campus,” Eldridge said. “And, I think, it’s the living room of the community.”

The school has about 7,000 students, full time and part time, credit and noncredit. Enrollment is at an eight-year high, Eldridge said.

“We’re very proud of the fact that we have the highest UC acceptance transfer rate in all of Northern California,” he said, referring to University of California campuses. “One of the highest rates in the state.”

Also, many students in the college’s workforce development noncredit certificate programs “see significant wage gains immediately,” Eldridge said.

“We’re very proud of that,” he said.

“It’s such a nice building,” said Elena El Ahmadieh, 22, an applied health student in her last semester before earning an associate degree. “There’s room for people to study more. It looks like an actual college building.”

El Ahmadieh, who is interested in transferring to nursing school, said she likes the coffee shop and the renovated library.

“It is more accessible now,” she said of the library. “It was not accessible over there. It’s bigger, and people have more access to stuff. It’s more organized, and there are group study rooms.”

College of Marin has come a long way in 100 years. In 1926, Marin voters passed a 15-cent tax to start a community college.

The fledgling school’s 80 students began classes in a home on the George E. Butler estate, which the college acquired for its campus. The estate was part of a massive tract that in the 1870s was called Ross Landing, according to early maps. It included a dirt road that would become Sir Francis Drake Boulevard.

Now the Kentfield campus is 77 acres, and the school’s other branch, Indian Valley Campus in Novato, turned 50 last year.

The student center in Kentfield consolidates student services and activities that had been spread out among other buildings, including portable structures. The center has 10 classrooms, small study rooms, meeting rooms and a large event venue that can accommodate up to 200 people.

“I really like this new building,” said Amira Almaznai, 18, a first-year nursing student who graduated from Tamalpais High School. “It’s very nice and modern.”

She likes having the Pink Owl Coffee cafe close by, and also appreciates the library and its study rooms.

“I love my classes here,” Almaznai said.

One of the major consolidations in the center was moving the library into a larger, more open and welcoming space.

“It’s a dream come true,” said David Patterson, a librarian at the college. “We’ve already checked out more books in the first couple of weeks than we usually do for the full semester.”

Eldridge said he realizes that challenges such as the rising cost of living, housing, transportation, the environment and national politics are part of the landscape as the college enters the next 100 years.

To help support students’ basic needs, such as food, housing, textbooks and school supplies, the college has raised $5 million toward a $10 million goal that will be matched by the Jay Pritzker Foundation. If the $20 million fund is established as planned, it would generate $1 million annually for student support, Eldridge said.

“Federal actions, policies, threats certainly do impact our students and our employees,” he said. “Whether you’re talking about massive chaos around immigration enforcement, or the end of Affordable Care Act subsidies, or massive Medicare cuts.”

“Since we are the community’s college, and so many of the students we serve or their families will be impacted by this, it weighs heavily on us,” Eldridge said.

The college has reached out to many local agencies and groups to coordinate support for students and their families, he said.

“We’re doing everything we can to be an oasis for our students,” Eldridge added. “A place where people can come, focus on their studies, interact with others in a positive environment, as the chaos of the world roils on.”