The Chinatown Coalition

Meeting Minutes

February 12, 2015     9:30 AM

Present: Bet Har Wong-Chan, Kun Chang, Richard Goldberg, Joan Abbot, Paige Gunning, Angie Liou, Ziyu Zhou, Christopher Blackler, Mary Higgins, Peggy Ings, Ross Cameron, Claire Dynes, Russell Fenton, Kate Chang, Sherry Dong, Terry Yin, Mark Liu, Nancy Liu, Helen Wong, Ling Mei Wong, Nelson Kiang

Peggy Ings from Emerson College as well as architects from Elkus Manfredi presented two Emerson building projects.  The Little Building, at the corner of Boylston and Tremont Streets, will be closed in May 2017 to undergo significant renovation to bring it up to code.  When completed in the summer of 2019, its dorm capacity will increase from 750 students to 1044.  The 1-3 Boylston Place will be a new construction project that will begin April 2015 and be complete by summer of 2017.  This building will provide 379 dorm beds.  To minimize the impact on nearby neighborhoods including Chinatown, Emerson is working on a temporary relocation plan to house the students that will be displaced during the Little Building renovation.

Richard Goldberg reported that the yearlong presentation from various CCEP Adult Education organizations has come to an end, but that he wanted to hear from the group what adult education gaps they believe still need serviced, and what other adult education presentations the group would be interested in seeing in the future.  Suggestions included statistics on demographics of adult education learners, definition of “career readiness”, and bridging soft skills and cultural issues new immigrants may encounter but not necessarily covered by any specific adult education or counseling program.