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Academic Facilities


Architecture and Visual Arts

Two design studios are used extensively for architecture studies. The sophomore design studio provides 20 dual workstations -- a drafting table and a microcomputer equipped with the latest version of AutoCAD -- simulating actual worksite conditions.

The diverse visual arts programs are supported by a variety of studio and laboratory facilities.

Three studios are fully equipped for printing, drawing, painting and design courses. Two studios are equipped with combination graphics computers and drawing boards. These and four additional computer laboratories support electronic art, desktop publishing, multimedia and animation studies. Both Macintosh and PC compatible computers are used.

The photography program utilizes a spacious facility that includes a studio equipped with multiple light sources and backdrops; a newly equipped digital darkroom with Mac-based computers and photo-quality printers; a second large darkroom with sodium vapor safe lights, enlargers, and sinks for printing; a demonstration area; a finishing area with washing and drying equipment; and supply of new cameras.

A spacious, well-ventilated ceramic/sculpture suite of rooms includes wheel throwing, three-dimension design and handbuilding areas, clay mixing and slip casting room, glazing room and lecture room. Specialized equipment includes electric and kick wheels, circular and band saws, an air brush unit, balances, slab roller, six electric kilns, and drying racks.


Aviation

Aviation flight training takes place at our Fixed Base Operation at Trenton Mercer Airport where the college maintains a fleet of 10 aircraft for instructional purposes. Located at the airport are two AST 300 flight simulators and three computer flight trainers. Flight students are responsible for their own transportation to and from the airport. The college employs its own staff of flight instructors and dispatchers who provide services to our students. The ground training and course work are conducted at the West Windsor Campus where additional resources including a wind and smoke tunnel, engine cutaways, flight instruments, and meteorological equipment are used in multimedia classrooms.

The Aviation Flight Technology curriculum has been approved by the Council on Aviation Accreditation (CAA). It is one of the few community college programs in the United States that has received this accreditation.


Business

Business classes meet in one of the modern computer labs on campus or in pleasant, well-lit classrooms. Course instruction includes the most popular word processing, spreadsheet, accounting, and database software being used in current business practice. Accounting students have the opportunity to reinforce classroom instruction in an Accounting Learning Center, staffed by a full-time teaching assistant. Tutoring is available several hours a week on a drop-in basis. The lab also contains several personal computers with online tutorials for student use.


Television and Digital Film

The success of Mercer's Digital Film and Television programs is highly attributable to its professional facilities. Mercer has fully-equipped studios and editing labs for instruction and student use. The facilities include a 1000-square-foot multi-camera studio and control room with live-streaming capabilities, digital editing labs featuring Adobe Creative Cloud software, podcasting studios, and a field equipment office that provides students with all the tools they need to produce their digital film and video projects.


Computer Labs

MCCC is equipped with nearly 1200 computer systems available for student use, in more than 50 microcomputer facilities (labs) located throughout the two campuses. Special-purpose computer labs include Mac-based graphics labs, PC-based animation labs and Mac/PC digital video editing labs.

An open computer lab is located in the West Windsor Campus Library, where attendants are available to answer questions and assist users. The lab allows students access to web-based supplemental assignments and readings, word processing and spreadsheet software, and the Internet. A computer lab is also located in the James Kerney Campus Library.


Conference Center

The state-of-the-art Conference Center at Mercer is designed as an ideal meeting and learning environment for the professional community. Facility features are detailed at the Conference Center website.


Engineering Technology

Engineering technology facilities include two AutoCAD laboratories, two electronics laboratories featuring electronic test equipment and microprocessor technology training devices, two drafting laboratories used by students in technology programs, and a multipurpose civil engineering technology laboratory. In addition, the entire West Windsor Campus serves as a laboratory for surveying courses, which use traditional and electronic measuring devices.


Fire Science Technology

All technical courses in Fire Science are held at the John T. Dempster Sr. Fire Service Training Center, located four miles from the West Windsor Campus at 350 Lawrence Station Road in Lawrence Township. The center provides state-of-the-art classroom facilities as well as a fire training ground for hands-on demonstrations of tactics, fire investigations and handling of hazardous materials. The center also has its own library containing the fire service holdings of the college as well as general emergency service publications and reference materials.


Funeral Service

Funeral Service students use a modern, self-contained embalming facility which includes three embalming stations and walk-in refrigeration. A scaled-down casket selection room is also housed here. A large, well-lit classroom with tables doubles as a restorative art lab. Students supplement their experience with a supervised off-campus internship. Applicable periodicals are kept in the program office for immediate access by students and faculty, supplementing those available in the library.


Holocaust/Genocide Resource Center

With its collection of print resources and various technological aids, the Mercer County Holocaust/Genocide Resource Center, located in the West Windsor Campus Library, promotes holocaust education and awareness. The center was made possible through a collaboration between the County of Mercer, the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, and MCCC.
Vist The Holocaust/Genocide Resource Center website.


Horticulture

Horticulture students use laboratories in chemistry and biology, drafting facilities, a small greenhouse adjacent to the biology laboratories, and a multimedia laboratory. However, the majority of the program's activities are conducted in a complex of three greenhouses and a classroom where students practice interior and exterior landscaping, floral design, plant propagation, greenhouse management, and pest control. In addition to a large rhododendron garden, the college's 292 acres contain an extensive collection of both woody and herbaceous plants. These resources provide additional opportunities for field work in plant identification, plant management, and pest control.


Hospitality Programs

Students in Mercer's hospitality programs (Chef Apprenticeship; Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management; Professional Baking; Professional Cooking; Catering Management; and Travel Agent) learn basic and advanced skills of food preparation and baking in modern labs on both campuses which simulate a commercial kitchen facility. Students have access to up-to-date equipment, similar to the kind they will be working with on the job. A pleasant dining room, where students serve meals they have prepared, adjoins the West Windsor lab. Front-of-the-house and back-of-the-house software is used to simulate actual management conditions in hotel and lodging facilities.


Interactive Television Classrooms

Interactive television classrooms allow faculty on either campus to teach a class simultaneously to students at both campuses. The classrooms can also connect to similar classrooms worldwide. All students are able to be seen and heard by their instructor.


International Business Practice Firm

Mercer County Community College is committed to internationalizing its business curriculum and to providing its students with practical experiences to apply international business skills. To meet this challenge, Mercer has developed the International Business Practice Firm -- a challenging and globally-oriented credit course. The program is a business simulation; but instead of case studies and role playing, the Business Practice Firm conducts "real" business with other Business Practice Firms not only in the U.S. but also worldwide. The college has a state-of-the-art facility where students have the opportunity to use the very latest technology.


Libraries

Mercer County Community College has three libraries: the West Windsor and James Kerney libraries that are centrally located on the two campuses, and a library for students who attend the Dempster Fire Training Center. The collection, which provides support for teaching and learning, includes over 300,000 print and nonprint resources.

The library emphasizes access to a wide range of resources. As a benefit of membership in local, state, and national cooperatives, a number of electronic resources can be accessed both in the library and from remote locations. The automated online catalog lists holdings in the college's collections as well as those in the branches of the Mercer County (public) Library System. Through VALE, the New Jersey Virtual Academic Library Environment, library users have access to web-based indexes, many of which provide full-text articles which can be printed on site or e-mailed.

The college belongs to PALINET, the regional network of the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC); and the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative of the New Jersey Library Network. Services include cataloging, document delivery, and supplemental reference services.

The library provides comprehensive reference services: general reference assistance, term paper research assistance, information literacy instruction, citation location, current contents and assistance in compiling bibliographies, research guides and webliographies.

Equipment available in the library includes copiers for print and nonprint materials, television and videocassette players, audiocassette players, graphic calculators, laserdisc players, an audiocassette duplicator, and 16mm film projectors.

The James Kerney Campus Library has over 5,000 volumes including general titles, reference works, periodicals, literacy materials, and an African art book collection in addition to electronic resources.

Additional information about the libraries, services, and resources appears on the college website and can be found in various library publications available at the reference desk. Library tours are available upon request, and library staff provides class instruction on library use. Students are encouraged to enroll in LIB 103, for in-depth instruction on how to use library resources and the Internet to find information.


Natural Sciences

The biology, chemistry and physics laboratories provide a modern and safe environment for student experiments. Preparation rooms adjacent to each laboratory contain supplies, equipment, and safety cabinets for volatile chemicals. Technical staff manage these facilities to ensure smooth and effective operations. In biology, the laboratories are equipped with refrigerators, autoclaves, microscopes, preserved specimens, models, charts, skeletons, and specialized resources appropriate to each course. Instrumentation in chemistry provides students with a wide array of experiences in spectroscopy and chromatography. Recent acquisitions include new gas chromatographs, a new infrared spectrophotometer, and web-based access to Rider University's new 300 MHz FT-NMR. Physics laboratories provide a full range of equipment for experiments in mechanics, heat, optics, and electricity and magnetism.

All science laboratories are equipped with personal computers for data analyses and other laboratory applications. A new multimedia laboratory, also located in the science building, provides state-of-the-art software for applications in biology, chemistry, nursing, radiography, medical laboratory technology, and landscape design.


Nursing and Allied Health

Facilities for programs in the health professions replicate or simulate the corresponding clinical settings. A comprehensive laboratory equipped with hospital beds, mannequins, and multimedia computer workstations supports the nursing program. Radiography students work in a newly renovated laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment to practice positioning techniques, take X-rays, and develop clinical skills. Equipment in the medical laboratory technology program includes a hematology analyzer, Abbott Vision system, and Kodak DT-60 analyzer. The physical therapist assistant laboratory is equipped with mat and treatment tables, electrical stimulation devices, an ultrasound unit, paraffin and hydrocollator units, practice stairs, and parallel bars.


Performing Arts

Mercer's performing arts facilities are designed to support course work, production, and performances in music, dance, and theater.

The music facilities include practice rooms equipped with regularly maintained pianos, instrument storage area, music class/rehearsal rooms, and faculty and departmental offices. The piano lab includes synthesizers and computer station components. College-owned musical instruments are available for use by the symphonic band, jazz band, and chamber ensemble. The vocal and instrumental music library includes numerous arrangements, easy to difficult, encompassing pop, rock, jazz, show, and classical. Music facilities are located in the Communications Center, convenient to the recording and broadcasting studios and near the Kelsey Theatre.

Dance instruction takes place in two air conditioned studios dedicated to classwork and rehearsal. The facilities have floating floors, a built-in sound system, barres for adults and children, and mirrors.

The 385-seat multipurpose theatre is also a laboratory for teaching technical theatre skills. The modified thrust stage is usable for musical and nonmusical productions. A built-in sound system, the good acoustics of the house, and a computerized lighting board ensure accurate audio reproduction and highly professional lighting effects.

The Studio Theatre, performing venue for the college's theatre program (MC3), is the primary acting and rehearsal space for theatre students. Fully equipped with lighting and sound systems, this black box theatre accommodates intimate productions for audiences of 100 or less.