(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Jacqui Tricarico, Senior Correspondent for "One-on-One", and I'm so pleased to be joined now by Andrew Christ who is the senior vice president for Real Estate Development and Capital Operations at New Jersey Institute of Technology.

So great to have you on, Andrew.

- Thanks for having me, Jacqui.

- Talk about that, you know, you got your master's and your bachelor's at NJIT, you decide to come back to your alma mater to pursue this role and to really essentially enhance the student experience there.

Talk about your role.

What is it and what are you doing at NJIT?

- Sure.

Yes.

So for the past decade, I've had the pleasure of being able to impact my alma mater in ways that I never would've imagined when I graduated many, many years ago.

The role I'm currently in, I have a lot of different responsibilities, campus planning, design and construction, some of the operational components, the police department.

It's a very all encompassing operational role that allows me to impact the students in many, many ways.

None really bigger than being able to provide the facilities that we need for the students of today, as well as the students of tomorrow.

- Talking about that, the students of today, NJIT is known for having such a diverse population and students coming from all around the country and the world to NJIT in Newark.

Describe some of the projects that you're working on that is really helping to enhance the student experience, and especially for those populations.

- Sure, well, NJIT just recently received our Hispanic Serving Institution designation, so recognizing the level of diversity that we have here.

Previously, we had received the Asian American, Native American Pacific Islander designation.

So an incredibly diverse group of students here at NJIT.

And it's truly an opportunity to understand a lot of different cultures, what we need to provide for students of all different races, creeds, ethnicities, et cetera, and be able to foster their belonging here at NJIT through the facilities that we create, whether that be residential facilities that allow them to come from all over the globe and be able to reside here on our campus in Newark or the classroom spaces or the student center and places like that, that we are looking right now at modernizing to provide even better facilities for that diverse population.

- We've spoken to other folks on our programming about this 494 Broad Street project.

I know it's in partnership with the Fidelco Group.

Fidelco Group is also a funder of our programming.

Describe what it is and how it is directly impacting NJIT, but also the Newark community as a whole.

- Well, so one of the things that we're very concerned about here at NJIT is growing in a sustainable way.

So we've been very lucky over time that despite the decrease in demographics, you know, the numbers of high school students are shrinking that are graduating and coming to college, people are questioning the value proposition.

So while we wanna continue to expand and we have some incredible plans to do that, we also want to do it in a way that's very fiscally responsible.

So one of the ways that we're dealing with, some of the near term space needs is by relocating some of our administrative functions to that 494 Broad Street space, which we're now calling our administrative center, which will allow us to free up a couple of floors in one of our primary campus buildings so we can renovate those spaces into teaching, learning, and student engagement spaces.

So it's an incredible project for NJIT, but it also takes us from the University Heights and brings a couple of hundred of our employees to the downtown.

We'll be right across the street from Rutgers Business School.

Right immersed in what Audible is doing at 33 Washington, which is an incredible renovation of that area.

So it'll bring some customers, some foot traffic, some additional vibrancy to that area.

So we're extremely proud to be able to do that for our host city.

- And, you know, there are initiatives, like you mentioned Audible, where they're talking about the people that are working at Audible, but they want them working, living, eating, relaxing, doing all the things within the city that they are working in essentially to really help the economy and make sure that Newark continues to thrive and grow.

What other ways are you seeing that with NJIT immersing itself within the Newark community?

- So we have a lot of different initiatives.

Our police department is a true role model for policing on college campuses.

They really are more about community engagement than they are about community policing.

So they're out engaging the community in many events, participating all over the city, and really showing the city that NJIT is a good partner.

As part of our 2030 strategic plan, we actually call out a specific strategic priority to become even more community engaged than we are currently.

So that whether that's our students going out into the city and helping tutor high school students, whether that's doing community cleanups, whatever we can do to continue to foster our relationship with our neighbors and not necessarily just be that ivory tower up on the hill.

We want to truly be a part of our city, which is Newark, and make that a better place for all of us.

- Lastly, Andrew, how rewarding has it been for you to be back at NJIT in this capacity over all these years?

- It's been a true dream come true.

I never expected when I graduated with a civil engineering degree that I would have the opportunity to come back to my alma mater and make such a prolific impact on the campus for the last decade and hopefully another decade going forward and being able to build $600 million worth of new facilities and renovated facilities.

Really providing a new place for the students of today that's so much more improved over the time when I spent here at NJIT and allowing them to really be able to grow and flourish and that's the best part of my job.

When I get to interact with the students, I get to hear from them.

I get to hear the impact that we're having.

I have an incredible team that effectuates all this incredible work and it makes me extremely proud to be able to do it at my alma mater.

- That's great.

Growing and evolving.

So important.

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today, Andrew.

I appreciate it.

- Thank you again for having me.

- Thank you.

and for Jacqui, and our entire team here at One-on-One, we thank you so much for watching.

See you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by Wells Fargo.

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The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

New Jersey’s Clean Energy program.

And by New Jersey Children’s Foundation.

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And by New Jersey Monthly.

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