According to Vice President of Student Life Dr. Gerard Tobin, the opening of Warde created the opportunity to consider what the school should do with the remaining residential areas.

The addition of another residence hall led to the closing of Egan Hall as a freshman residential building.

“We started addressing this issue in fall of 2008,” Tobin said. “It is a well-considered plan.”

Egan was chosen to become offices because it had the “greatest number of possibilities,” Tobin said.

The creation of offices inside Egan led to many office and department moves.

“We moved over 105 offices this summer,” Tobin said. “It was a huge project.”

The goal of the moves was to put offices near each other that work together on a regular basis, Tobin said.

Prior to this summer, the math lab, writing center and tutoring services were located on separate floors, but they have now moved to the main floor of the Hammermill library.

Academic support is now on the first floor of Egan. Career services were moved near academic support. This gives career services and academic support a “greater opportunity to work together,” Tobin said.

Departments were also moved for a better “synergy of operations,” Tobin said.

Last year interior design and fashion merchandising shared the Briggs Annex. However, fashion merchandising is part of the Walker School of Business. Therefore, fashion merchandising was moved to the third floor of Old Main to be closer to the other departments in the Walker School of Business.

Another reason for the moves was to make offices more accessible to the students.

Student financial services moved to the first floor of Egan because that is where “most students are going to travel,” Tobin said.

Service Learning is located on the first floor of Egan as well because service is an important part of the Mercyhurst College mission and students will have the opportunity to see the office, Tobin said.

Due to the moves, admissions counselors, as well as the resident life staff, no longer have to share offices.

The office and department moves will “in the long run benefit students for a long time,” Tobin said.