Please pardon our appearance while we renovate.

If I had a dollar for every time I've said this to a student visiting Irwin House (the Office of Admission) over the last two months, I could have generated my own stimulus package.

All kidding aside, for those of you new to Lasell's campus, Irwin House is on the corner of Cheswick Rd. and Commonwealth Ave., and is one of the College's many Victorian homes (27 to be exact, dating back to the 1800's) that now serve as either student housing or faculty/administrative offices. Lasell's campus is really quite spectacular, uniquely mixing historic mansions with new high-tech, green constructed residences and facilities.

To all of the students and their families who visited and toured campus last week (during school vacation) - thank you for coming to see us, and for your patience. The construction can be a distraction, and at times, an inconvenience. However, Irwin's renovations will add additional office space for our growing team - including Lou, our new Associate Director of International and Multicultural Admission. Lou won't have a chance to get too comfortable in his new office, as he "takes off" (literally) on a recruiting trip to Florida, China, the Middle East, and Turkey beginning next week. Meet Lou and the rest of the Admission Team and see if their upcoming spring travel plans include your area.

In Irwin, our expansion projects have not been limited to just new offices and staff. Last month we launched our new student portal, an online way for our undergraduate applicants (nearly 3700 last year) to regularly check the status of their applications, connect with our admission and financial aid teams, and receive Lasell news and updates electronically. Tyler (one of our Admission Counselors) did an amazing job getting this service up and running. Early feedback has been extremely positive. Our fall applicants enjoy being able to access their individual admission accounts and determine if their applications are complete or if certain credentials are missing. If you have any questions about accessing the Lasell portal, check-in with Tyler. Also, high school Juniors - stay tuned for our next tech initiative. Lasell will be participating in CollegeWeekLive (the worlds biggest virtual college fair).

Back to the hammers and nails in Irwin. One of the members of the Blue Key Society (our Student Admission Ambassadors) who lives in McClelland Hall told me, "he was use to construction at Lasell." "It seems like every year, Lasell is putting up a new building or renovating an older one." Now that I think about it - he's not exaggerating. In the 6+ years that I've been Director of Admission, the College has built 3 residence halls and the campus center; expanded the Dining Hall, opened a cafe, renovated the auditorium, the athletic center, and countless classrooms on campus. So I guess it was just a matter of time before the construction crews found Irwin.

Speaking of McClelland Hall. The past few weeks have given me a glimpse of what the students currently living in McClelland and Van Winkle Halls must be experiencing, as they endure the construction of Lasell's 2 newest student residences just feet away. These 2 new residence halls will house approximately 150 new students, and will include underground parking and a courtyard. Unlike the renovations in Irwin, the 2 new residence halls are going up on schedule, and are due to open fall 2009. To the students living in McClelland and Van Winkle Halls - thank you for your cooperation and for your understanding. On schedule or not, I'm sure you've had to overcome your share of construction woes.

Well, back to work tomorrow and to Phase 1 of the Irwin renovation project (scheduled to be completed by the end of the month). By the look of things last Friday, and I think Eddie (the Irwin project manager) would agree - we're making progress, but for now I should probably get use to saying "please pardon our appearance while we renovate."