Harpur Advising will be starting the semester at its new home in Room 110 of Old Champlain, leaving Academic B behind for a space better suited to the office’s growing needs.

According to Amy Hanford, the Harpur Advising office manager, this move also stems from the lack of space available in Academic B.

Over the last 18 months, Harpur’s advising staff grew from four advisors to 10, which caused the advising offices of pre-law and pre-health to be moved to satellite locations in the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center and Academic B last April. And, in an effort to keep up with the University’s plan of 20,000 students by 2020, three more Harpur advisers will be hired in the coming year.

With the influx of so many new advisers, Harpur Advising needed to find a way to to accommodate both them and the growing number of Binghamton University students.

“The most basic answer is that we outgrew the space in Academic B,” Hanford said. “Our waiting room of 10 chairs had to be moved to the hallway. A larger space was definitely in order.”

The new advising office includes an upgraded waiting room, with the number of seats increasing from 10 to 40, as well as enough space to welcome the pre-law and pre-health advising offices back, bringing all of Harpur Advising back into one location.

This move also comes with a long list of added benefits for students such as closer proximity to the residential communities and extended hours. The new hours will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m, Monday through Friday, and will run through lunch hours.

There will also be a new, dedicated programming space for advisers to hold events for Harpur students covering topics such as major selection, schedule building and graduate school application and preparation.

“As the University grows, [Harpur Advising] wanted a space that would accommodate all of our students,” said Kathy Brunt, assistant dean for Academic Affairs and Advising.

Katelyn Hunt, a sophomore majoring in integrative neuroscience, said that when she was scheduling classes last semester, she had trouble trying to get an appointment, and that it seemed as though the old offices didn’t have nearly enough room to accommodate students.

“The waiting room was always filled,” she said. “I usually had to wait 30-45 minutes for a walk in, which is hard to fit into a schedule with classes, too.”

With a continually growing student population, the old Harpur Advising struggled to handle that number of students, which is why Hanford says the new offices are being built with the long term in mind to continue accommodating more students.

“Our new offices will allow for room to grow,” Hanford said. “We look to be here for years to come.”

An open house for the new office will be held on Thursday, February 4 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the new location. Students will be able to come in and meet with advisers as well as get a tour of the new Harpur Advising.