New Career Center opens on Putnam UC first floor

The newly remodeled Career Center is now formally open and available to students following months-long construction on the first floor of the Putnam University Center (UC). 

The center is offering three new interview rooms, which are small rooms that students can book for virtual or in-person interviews or if they need to film something for a class, a tech-ready conference room, a resource library, and a common area. 

After its announcement in May 2025, construction began on what was originally advertised as the “Renjen Career Center,” projected to continue through the summer and into fall semester. It was funded as a new space for the growing Office of Career Development, which previously resided on the third floor of the UC. According to Anne Lapour, Willamette’s executive director of career initiatives, the career development staff moved into their new offices around Oct. 14, with an open house planned for Oct. 30.

One of the benefits to the first-floor space is its high degree of visibility to students. Also, according to Lapour, the career team has outgrown its old space. 

“Our team has just grown, so we no longer have enough offices for the number of staff we have,” Lapour said. “We believe that career development, and the donors that invested in this, believe that career development is a really essential part of the college experience.”

In terms of construction on the face of the UC, another main entrance has been added that leads directly into the new Career Center, and many of the amenities previously existing on the first floor of Putnam remain largely undisturbed, such as the Bistro and mail center. While the bookstore was made smaller, the amenity that has been most impacted by the move is Blitz Market, the campus store where students can use both Flex dollars and meal swipes to get a snack or a grab-and-go meal.

As one of the greatest advantages of Blitz Market is intended to be its convenience, many students have concerns about its new location in Sparks Athletic Center, which is by no means a central location on campus. “Personally, whenever I did go to the Blitz Market, it was after dinner at Goudy, and I wanted a little treat,” said Vanessa Conde (’28). “And so it’s now incredibly out of the way for me.” 

An issue throughout the construction of the new Career Center has been accessibility. For multiple weeks in September of 2025, the sidewalk in front of the UC was entirely blocked, making that walkway not Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant and forcing students to walk on the grass by the Mill Stream.

Now that construction has finished, the Career Center can begin to fulfill its purpose. One of the main goals of the center is to “get students engaging in their career development process outside of just one-on-one appointments,” Lapour explained.

Another goal of the Career Center is to draw more attention to existing advising services and the resources that they are now able to provide through this larger space.

Conde noted that she got help making her first résumé for a class in the old offices, adding, “The old career center was definitely out of the way and I only went there because it was an assignment, so I think having it be more of a central location would motivate people to go.”

The Career Center staff are also hoping to draw alumni back to Willamette to speak to students about entering professional fields and different career paths. In addition to these career-related resources, the Career Center, with its central area, adds another space for more general student use, full of cushy furniture and artwork from the Hallie Ford Museum of Art.

“We want students to use our space and engage with us outside of just scheduled appointments,” Lapour said, “so just the accessibility — and honestly it being more casual and informal for students to come in and access us — I’m really excited about that.”