The Iona College Honors Program is moving its office to Spellman Hall as it looks for more space due to the program’s growth in size and offerings.

The program has experienced a large amount of growth over the past few years after current Honors director Dr. Kim Paffenroth stepped into the position, and the growth is expected to continue.

This makes expanding the Honors program center to not only hold offices but also classrooms specifically for honors courses, a priority for Paffenroth.

“As the program grows, it will be important to have extra classrooms,” Paffenroth said.

The new Honors Center is currently under construction on the first floor of Spellman Hall and is expected to be much bigger than the offices that the program inhabited before. The Honors office has been located in the Political Science and Social Work house on the top floor. The house is behind the Edmund Rice Chapel, and being out of the way, few students would stop by to ask questions when they arose and rarely even came for an appointment. The building was a challenge to find, which would dissuade honors students from seeking out information.

“We needed a centrally located place for events,” Paffenroth said. “The house on the hill was an issue because no one just dropped in.”

Because few people simply dropped by to study or just sit and chat at the old office, Paffenroth wanted the center to be a place for Honors students to gather to ask questions and a permanent place for events the program sponsors throughout the year.

“The main goal is for people to come more,” Paffenroth said.

Paffenroth believes that having the new center will also allow him to more successfully advertise opportunities to be taken advantage of, like conferences, extra presentations and the various other opportunities that can be found in the Honors Program.

The new center is expected to house two seminar rooms along with a lounge for studying and the offices of Paffenroth and Dr. Charlotte Wray, the assistant director of the Honors Program. Paffenroth hopes that the new location will draw more students to use the resources of the Honors program to their betterment.

The Center was expected to open at the beginning of the spring semester, but setbacks have stalled the office from officially opening. Paffenroth says that the center will open as soon as it is ready.