The UCA Welcome Center was forced to temporarily close in early September due to a sewer line leakage. The Welcome Center will not open again until it is resolved.
The center, which rests on Donaghey Avenue along with Twisted Taco, Marble Slab and 1907 Bread Company, is expected to resume operations no later than early October.
Dylan Richardson, assistant director of campus tours in admissions and enrollment, said, “The Welcome Center is currently closed for minor interior reconfiguring brought on by a maintenance issue.”
Kevin Carter, associate vice president for facilities, said, “A sewer line from the second floor backed up and overflowed into the Welcome Center,” inevitably leading to its closure.
Metro Disaster, a water restoration service in Conway, has managed to clean the area.
“We are currently awaiting some components to come in before the work is continued,” Richardson said.
One of these missing components is the carpet to be installed in the Welcome Center.
“The carpet has been ordered,” Carter said. “Once it arrives, it will take about a week to install. We hope to have it completed by the end of this month. We are working on getting everything fixed as quickly as possible.”
Richardson said, “The Welcome Center is our hub for welcoming prospective students and their families to campus. We provide guests with a comprehensive campus tour experience showcasing many of the resources and amenities we offer at UCA. We also use the space for some of our Preview Days, such as Bear Facts Day and Bear Necessities Day.”
He said that last year, a little over 10,000 guests were welcomed using the Welcome Center, with roughly 75% of that number being campus tour guests.
Sanjuana Torres, a junior double major in political science and public administration and UCA ambassador, said, “The Welcome Center serves as the primary point of introduction for prospective students and their families visiting campus. It also serves as a place for UCA Ambassadors to go hang out.”
“The closure hasn’t caused significant disruptions since we’ve temporarily relocated all campus tour operations to Harrin Hall until early October,” Torres said. “We’ve been able to maintain our services without issue.”
Richardson said, “Since we can’t use the Welcome Center for anything other than storage until the work is done, the UCA Ambassador program now has only one space to utilize instead of two — at least for a little bit. While I look forward to our ambassadors having their main space back, the closure has not prevented us from diligently serving our prospective students and their families at Harrin Hall.”