Sen. Richard Shelby's dream is coming true.
The College of Engineering is in the process of completing its new Shelby Center, a cluster of buildings designed specifically to house engineering students.
The project was the brainchild of Shelby and is one of five Shelby Centers that he has helped fund around the state, said James Killian, director of communications and marketing for the College of Engineering.
"It's been his dream and his vision to have a science technology and engineering center in each of the universities--major universities," Killian said.
According to Killian, Shelby was able to secure federal funds for part of the center. State funding covered another portion of the project, and the rest was covered by private funds.
"We raised nearly 20 million dollars in private funding," Killian said.
Fundraising in the College of Engineering relies heavily on support from alumni, said Veronica Chesnut, director of development for the College of Engineering.
"Well, we do rely on private donations. We work with corporations and foundations, we do solicit from companies, so you know just the whole gamut, anybody that you know would have an interest in supporting the College of Engineering," Chesnut said. "But we do have over 40,000 graduates, so we do have a lot of alumni and friends that we do rely on for support."
With financial aid taken care of, the Shelby Center has been divided into two phases. The first phase is already complete and has been functioning for several years. It houses the dean's office, the student services office and two departments: industrial and systems engineering and computer science and software engineering.
The second phase is a work in progress, and is expected to be in use by next spring.
"The second phase will consist of two buildings. One of those buildings is the mechanical engineering building, and it's called the Dwight Wiggins Mechanical Engineering Hall. Currently, mechanical engineering shares a building, Ross Hall, with chemical engineering," Killian said.
"The other building going up is called the Advanced Research Center. What that building will allow us to do is it will create flexible research space for us so that all departments in the College of Engineering can do research in that building. So let's say that you're a professor and you have a project or a contract, you can arrange to do your research there."
The space currently occupied by the Shelby Center was previously used for the old student health center and a men's dormitory, Killian said.
The health center has since been moved to a new location on Lem Morrison Drive, and the men's dormitory has been accounted for by the new residence halls in the Village.
Scott Gentry, senior in mechanical engineering, said he looks forward to the increased space for future mechanical engineering students.
"Mechanical engineers have to know a little about electrical, a little about mechanical, as well as the chemical, so we have to be kind of a jack of all trades in each discipline. So that does us a little bit of good to have that interaction that we gain from sharing buildings, but I feel like as a unique discipline we would gain a lot from having our own little space," Gentry said.
The Shelby Center is expected to create better working conditions for all departments of engineering.
"So when mechanical moves down to the building here in the Shelby Center, this will not only let mechanical have the kinds of facilities they need (to be a) first rate program, it will also let chemical engineering use up the freed up space in Ross Hall so that they have better facilities too," Killian said. "You know, our enrollment's been growing over the years. Right now the College of Engineering's the largest college at the University. So we need this kind of space to support our student growth and also to support the research that our faculty does."
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