Wayne State College will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the reopening of Benthack Hall on Friday, Oct. 1.

The ribbon cutting ceremony will start at 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 1, as a part of the 2021 Homecoming Week. Prior to the ceremony, a scholarship campaign launch will open start at 2:00 p.m. in the Willow Bowl.

Prior to the launch, a ceremony will be held to celebrate the reopening of the Peterson Fine arts building at 3:00 p.m. The event is sponsored by the Wayne State College Foundations Board and is a part of a very important scholarship launch to help the students of WSC.

The Dean of the School of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Nicholas Shudak expressed the many evolutions that the building’s refurbishment has made.

“The building, and for all the programming therein, marks a change in how colleges/universities are looking at the use of classroom space, content, and pedagogy.” Shudak said. “The classrooms allow faculty and students to think about content in ways that mirror the professions and industries students will enter, and industries that WSC serves. There is quite a bit of talk about being flexible, adaptive, and interactive, well, Benthack is actually doing that work.”

The renovations for Benthack took a year to complete and now provides a home to the departments of counseling, education and family and consumer sciences. The new renovations serve the community of Wayne by providing a new hands-on approach to practicing mental health care.

This addition to the WSC campus aims to provide the students at WSC with an engaging environment that includes a food lab and two labs to encourage reading, writing and STEM.

“It’s going to be tremendous for our students to give them the hands-on learning opportunities that they need to be successful in their education and successful in their careers,” Director of College Relations, Jay Collier said.

Benthack Hall also aims to provide mental health services to the communities that surround Wayne. The Counseling Department will receive a newly developed facility that will help students perfect their art of therapeutic practice and treatment.

During the week of homecoming, Benthack Hall will also display student work for alumni and students to look and marvel at the work of the students who are enrolled at WSC.