1 week Ago By gneese
Waynesburg University held a ribbon-cutting for the Center for Criminal Justice and Forensic Investigation as part of its Showcase of Growth tour displaying new and enhanced facilities Friday morning. The Center for Criminal Justice and Forensic Investigation, which opened last fall, sits adjacent to the newly renovated Practical Exercise Facility next door. Other parts of the tour included the new centralized location of the Pathways Center, which offers support services to students, and the recently acquired Alston Farm, which will be used for student instruction and community outreach.
Friday’s ribbon-cutting came just over a year since ground broke on the $2.1 million criminal justice center, which was funded through private donations. Dana Cook Baer, the center’s director, said the goal of the new center, and the remodel of the adjacent practical exercise facility, is to create a centralized space to unite students across the disciplines of criminal justice, law enforcement and forensics.
“That’s the intention, to bring them all together in this facility where they can use all of the simulators and also host events where we can bring professionals together with the students to learn,” she said. Instructors led volunteers through the simulators on the center’s lower level, including an L3 Harris driving simulator and a 180-degree theater where students can simulate responses to emergency dispatches. Periodically, the instructor would pause the simulation to ask if use of force was warranted yet.
(No, in that case: She hadn’t pulled a knife, yet.) One case ended with the police successfully talking down a mentally ill man. Another ended in the volunteers being slashed during a home visit.
“There’s a lot that goes into that discretionary thinking at a time when students — really, people in general — need to be able to think and sort out information,” Baer said. The remodeled practical exercise facility now includes a mock courtroom, bloodstain pattern interpretation room and fingerprint lab. The students’ progression through the program mirrors that of a criminal case, Baer said, with their senior project being testifying in a mock trial, presided over by a real judge.
Groups also toured the Alston farm, a 52-acre spread recently donated by the Alston family. The barn, from 1790, was rebuilt with the original timbers. So was the log cabin on the property, one of the earliest built west of the Allegheny, said university President Doug Lee.
The university received a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to develop a strategic plan for the farm. Janet Palladino, professor and director of environmental science at Waynesburg University, said the grant is focused on making sure everyone can have a seat at the table who wants to participate. The plan is expected to be complete this fall.
“I know a lot about this area, rural Greene County and the needs of rural Greene County, and there’s so much we could do with this land,” she said. “There’s very few young farmers, and we want to think about, what’s the future of farming? How do we maintain food security in the future? This is a beautiful place to do that.” Tiffany Stewart, watershed specialist for the Greene County Conservation District, joined the tour to see the farm.
She loves the potential of the site, which she said was “like stepping back in time.” A Waynesburg University alumnae, she’s excited to see the university expand. She’s also excited to partner with the university to host local high school events there.
“It’d be really cool to get them outside of the classroom, and just see a working farm or an old farm,” she said. “And there’s so much you could do with that, especially with (Future Farmers of America) kids.” While still on campus, the group also made an impromptu stop at the eHIVE and toured the Pathways Center.
Once scattered through the Eberly Library, the Pathways functions have been brought together on the library’s lower level. A community learning space is surrounded by private rooms for testing and interviews, a sensory room where students can decompress, and a Career Closet where students can update their wardrobe ahead of important interviews. The expanded space also supports disability learning services, which assists about 100 students with testing accommodations.
Lee said because of programs such as the Pathways Center, retention at the university had gone up from 68% to 90%. “We talk about the enrollment crisis in higher education, and we’re really trying to attract students here that we know are going to succeed, and if they’re here, we’re going to support them as much as we possibly can through these various programs academically,” he said..
