Wednesday, August 27, 2008
What's new on campus in fall 2008
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The University of Southern Indiana is not the same university that it was a year ago. And next year, it will not be the same university that it is today. USI is one of the state’s most rapidly growing institutions, and USI students are accustomed to construction on an evolving campus. President H. Ray Hoops has called USI “a university whose history, present, and future reflect change.” That remains true in fall 2008. Two recently completed additions to campus life this semester are the Kenneth P. McCutchan Art Center/Palmina F. and Stephen S. Pace Galleries and the Residence Life Community Center. The McCutchan Art Center/Pace Galleries, a 4,800 square foot addition to the Liberal Arts Center, opens to the public with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 1 p.m. Sunday, September 7. The art center provides space for student and faculty exhibitions, visiting artist exhibitions, and traveling exhibitions, and will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The inaugural exhibition features work from the University’s McCutchan and Pace collections. There will be tours from 1:30 to 4 p.m., a book-signing with celebrated artist Stephen S. Pace, and a documentary film, “Stephen Pace: Indiana Painter,” produced by Richard Kane and Melody Lewis-Kane ’73, at 2:30 p.m. in Kleymeyer Hall. Located on Mahrenholz Road, the Residence Life Community Center replaces the McDonald West Recreational Room and incorporates the Eagle Express convenience store formerly located on Clarke Lane. A grand opening for the Residence Life Community Center will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, September 9. The focal point of the community center is a 1,500 square foot lounge with comfy furniture, tables and chairs, an imposing fireplace, a flat screen television wired for cable, and direct entry to Eagle Express and Pete’s Arena Pizza, which will offer delivery anywhere on campus. Beginning September 2, the Residence Life Community Center will be staffed daily from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. Eagle Express is open from 9 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. August 27-28 and 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. August 29. After August 29, regular hours are 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Sunday. While students enjoy the benefits of those new facilities, they also will confront a number of construction projects: the Recreation and Fitness Center expansion, construction of the new Ceramics Center, the Bent Twig Lane relocation project, and construction of the Business and Engineering Center. The Recreation and Fitness Center project will double the square footage of the RFC and add two lounge areas, a rock climbing tower, and an 8-foot-tall bouldering wall. There will be two group exercise rooms; a game room with pool, foosball, air hockey tables, table tennis, and television sets for game systems; rooms dedicated to stretching; a larger cardio room; and a combative room with punching bags and wrestling mats. Work is expected to be complete by fall 2009. The new Ceramics Center will be about 300 square feet larger than the current facility, with room for more pottery wheels. It will be ready for classes in spring 2009. The Bent Twig Lane relocation project makes way for construction of the Business and Engineering Center. A portion of the roadway behind the Liberal Arts Center is closed and fenced off in both directions, and the formerly one-way section of Clarke Lane/Bent Twig Lane from University Boulevard to University Center Service Drive (the pay lot) is now a two-way road leading back to University Boulevard. This phase of the road construction project is tentatively scheduled to be complete by mid-October. The 122,500 square foot Business and Engineering Center, under construction between the Technology Center and the Liberal Arts Center, will include two engineering teaching computer labs, three business teaching computer labs, and one shared computer lab. There will be two business labs, 15 engineering labs, four business classrooms, three engineering classrooms, one general classroom, two tiered classrooms, and offices for 92 faculty members. Signature features of the building include an atrium, a central area connecting all floors in the building with a monumental stair; a 52-seat board room on the third floor; and the Lakeside Study Lounge and Balcony, offering views of Reflection Lake from an enclosed outdoor space at the lower level as well as a balcony on the second floor. The Businesses and Engineering Center is expected to be complete in 2010. The next major building project on the horizon - the expansion of the University Center into the old library - is set to begin in spring 2009. Also in spring, a roundabout will be constructed at the entrance to campus at Clarke Lane and University Boulevard. Wendy Knipe Bredhold News and Information Services wkbredhold@usi.edu 812/461-5259 |
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