About 100 people attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Brody Hall and were offered tours to Holden Hall’s center as well.

“The opening of this engagement center is a milestone,” said Fred Poston, MSU’s vice president for finance and operations during the opening. “Basically (the goal is) to become very student-centered and to decentralize and integrate (services) where the student lives but way more than that. (It’s also to) provide other services, such as medical services, career counseling. … There’s a long list.”

The first engagement center on campus was opened last year in Hubbard Hall in East Neighborhood at the cost of $4 million and served as a test-run for the long-term plan of adding similar centers in every neighborhood on campus, said Kelley Bishop, executive director of career services network administration.

“Although there was a pilot done last year, there’s a lot that we’re still figuring out and experimenting with,” Bishop said.

English freshman Jonathan Beers, a Hubbard Hall resident, said he enjoys the convenience of the East Neighborhood engagement center.

“Having it close by to you is really important,” Beers said. “Especially if you’re trying to get something done really quick — you don’t want to have to go halfway across campus.”

With so many different services in one location, such as health care and counseling, Beers said he doesn’t have any concerns about privacy or lack thereof. Although it only has been open for a year, the Hubbard Hall center seems to be popular with students, Beers said.

“Whenever I come down here, there’s always someone here,” he said.

Bishop said the new centers will serve as a future model for campus-wide housing.

Understanding student needs and improving their experience on campus were the driving forces behind the new neighborhood engagement centers, said Joao Mattos, the engagement center coordinator for Brody Complex Neighborhood.

“A lot of first-year students get overwhelmed by (MSU) being so big,” Mattos said. “We’re definitely trying to make their neighborhood their home where they can be more familiar with the resources available.”

The MSU Board of Trustees also voted at its September meeting to approve the construction of the River Trail Neighborhood Engagement Center at a budget of $2 million.

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon believes MSU’s engagement centers can serve as a model for the rest of the nation.

“If you think about the strength of Michigan State University over a very long period of time, this should be written as one of the most innovative moments for the institution,” Simon said. “We have that opportunity to be a leader for innovation.”