The Center for Liberal Arts is a social and academic home for all Northern Essex students who have a liberal arts related major so that they can have access to academic help, events, after school snacks, advising, and more.

The idea of the Cente rcame about from the Business and Accounting center and at the time since there were many other centers already established that catered to those majors it seemed as if the Liberal Arts majors were the only students who were missing out on that experience. which is how the Center for Liberal Arts came about.

Students can find the center in the Northern Essex Haverhill campus, room C209. Though, due to the current pandemic the room for the center is currently closed to the public. Fortunately, the center is still up and running even during the covid-19 pandemic andstudents or faculty can join events now online.

The Center for Liberal Arts has many things to offer the Northern Essex student body and faculty. You do not necessarily need to be a liberal arts major in order to attend the center. But the center specifically caters to those with liberal arts majors just like how the other centers such as the Math center and Business center cater to their majors.

Dermot Luddy the head staff member for the Center for Liberal Arts and an occasional professor for the Ethics Oriental Philosophy World’s Religions course stated what is the meaning behind the center and on its impact on students when we can gather on campus again.   “It means a place where students feel welcomed. Where they can crash, have snacks, meet friends, and hang out. Wherethey meet faculty. The kind of things that are unique to the center is that you have faculty who come from pretty diverse backgrounds and different interests that have them coming in and hanging out in the same room that really sparks conversations that can be interesting; that sometimes students just ease drop into conversations that are taking place and you know that they are getting something out of this. They don’t intrude, that they don’t want to necessarily draw attention to themselves but they’re hanging on to every word that’s going on and you can see that they are having a great experience listening to professionals in their field discussinginteresting topics.”

Liberal arts majors in Northern Essex are considered to be Psychology, Communications,Journalism, History, English, Sociology, and more.

When the center and campus are open to the public, you can visit find events related tot he students or regarding the media and what is important in our society today. You can also graba free snack and at times the center offers free pizza if they’re hosting an event. In the center you can also see faculty members who hang out and engage into conversation with the students who visit the center, which is a great opportunity for the faculty and students to make connections and hold important educational conversations. Also, the center has advising for all liberal arts students who are looking for transfer help, to enroll into classes for the following semester, or just simple advising questions.

Fortunately, for any liberal arts students who are passed their first semester in the school is expected to report to the center for advising help and for those who are just starting their first semester can look to the information center to enroll into their first classes.

The best way to stay updated to any future eventsfor the Center of Liberal Arts has to offer is by email: centerforliberalarts@necc.mass.edu or viasocial media in which you can follow their Instagram page at @neccliberalarts.

Also, if you are looking for virtual advising help you can reach out to Shakira Moreta the academic advisor for liberal arts and business students through email or navigate to set up an appointment for all youradvising needs.

Moreta is currently doing advising for both business and liberal arts majors but eventually is going to be an advisor solely for liberal arts students.

Regarding her virtual appointments she stated that “I think the thing about being virtual is that at least myappointments have gone at least 30 minutes increments so I have that time to share my screenand if you are planning to transfer next fall for example and you’re going through that transferprocess we are able to share screens and look over the process you have in the application.”

There are many ways liberal arts students can be assisted with academic advising as long ast hey take the time to reach out to Moreta and reserve an appointment. Students can also email the Center for Liberal Arts email to get into touch with Moreta.

Unfortunately, many students may not be able to experience all the center has to offer at the moment because of the global covid-19 pandemic the world is facing but there is hope that the center could possibly be re-opening in the Fall of 2021, sources say.

Even though there isn’ ta Center for Liberal Arts in the Lawrence campus there is commotion that there will be something very similar opening up in the future.

Amy Callahan the Dean of the Liberal Artsdivision and previously a professor for Journalism/Communications courses as well as thep rogram coordinator for the Journalism/ Communication program said that “the Lawrence campus, if we hadn’t of had the pandemic then we would already have the center open. But when we re-open we will have an academic center for Lawrence that will actually serve I think all, everything except health because health I think has its own center over in the new building.”

So, for all those who attend the Lawrence campus look forward to possibly seeing a center similar tothe Center for Liberal Arts opening when the pandemic starts to clear up.

Overall, many of my sources all had a similar goal for the center which was for more student engagement.

Luddy had this to say about the student engagement for the center: “Well,it’s kind of difficult right now because we are off campus, I suspect there is a certain number of students who think that the center does not exist because we are not on campus but I think we remedied that quite a bit because we’ve had pretty regular events by zoom and lots of people are well zoomed out at this point but I have been heartened by how many people who are willing to turn up to events that we hold during the day time or the evening. That they can come andparticipate in.”

For more information about the center, visit https://www.necc.mass.edu/current-students/academic-centers/center-for-liberal-arts/liberal-arts-center-events/