This Fall semester brought many changes to Montgomery College and to the Rockville campus in particular. To better understand what’s behind these changes, we talked to the Vice President and Provost on the Rockville campus, Dr. Judy E. Ackerman.

Dr. Ackerman has been the VP and Provost for the Rockville Campus since January 2003. Before that she served as the Dean of Science, Professor of Mathematics, and the college-wide coordinator for the Honors program.

Some of Dr. Ackerman’s proudest accomplishments are helping a non-science major student get through the required math course; advocating for a new science building and seeing the project finally coming to life, changing the landscape of the campus; and the accomplishments of the Construction Club and the business department in the national competitions they participated last year. Among many others.

The expectations of our VP and Provost are mainly administrative issues, but according to Dr. Ackerman the most important is always “to advocate for the academics and other needs of the students of the Rockville Campus, in other words, the campus principal.”

The current semester started with some good changes and some inconvenient changes for students at Rockville. The closing of some parking lots, the changing of course numbers and codes, and the piloting of the new shuttle program between the Rockville and Tacoma campuses are just some of these changes. But there are more to come.

Since Monday, September 8th, the library is now open until 10 PM on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays; an increase of two hours to the current operation time.

Another change coming this week will be the start of renovations to the Science West building. This may cause an inconvenience for students since access to parking lots adjacent to Science West will be reduced and because of fences and other limitations that come with construction zones.

This renovation, the expansion of parking lots, and the new Science Center are part of the ten year project for all three campuses. In its next phases, the project will bring a redesigned Campus Center, parking garage, new library, new Student Service building, and many other renovations to existing buildings.

The dynamic project is meant to change and improve along with the needs of students.

One of the goals for Montgomery College is for all the renovations and new facilities to be as green as possible. After setting a high bar with LEED GOLD Science Center, anything less will certainly be considered a bit disappointing.

The new facilities will not impact the classes that are intended to be inside of the buildings. The classes will remain the same as they were previously. However, MC will try to create new classes that match new jobs in the market. “We try to stay responsive to where the students can transfer, or if there are jobs out there,” said Dr. Ackerman.

When questioned about the concerns of students in reference to the disturbing images used by the Pro Life group on campus, Dr. Ackerman confirmed being aware and even being uncomfortable with the images herself. However, she reminds us that “there is the right the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, […] and there is a fine line between not wanting to see something and actually being harmed by it.” Whenever these assemblies occur there is always a security guard on watch for crowd safety and to make sure the walkways aren’t blocked.

Dr. Ackerman is constantly working to improve Rockville campus. To learn more in-depth information about Dr. Judy E. Ackerman and her accomplishments, you can click here (https://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/judyackerman/) for her biography on Montgomery College’s official website.