New central class facility will replace old buildings

You still have time to get hopelessly lost in Haley Center before it's replaced.

The central classroom facility Program Requirements Committee held a provost's open forum Feb. 28 to move forward on plans for this major instructional space.

"The forum was open to anybody who can come," said Emmett Winn, associate provost and committee chair. "The topic was an update from the facilities division, which was presented by Dan King. He discussed the master planning process, the central classroom facility, the possibility of a parking garage on the northeast side of campus and a couple smaller items."

One of the goals of the Program Requirements Committee is to replace the outdated buildings on campus.

"The central classroom exists because we're replacing some of the aging facilities--1950s- or '60s-era buildings here on campus, like Haley or Parker Hall," Carroll said. "The central classroom is intended to provide provost-controlled core classroom space so that individual departments do not have to build that space."

The committee, which includes three students--Kirby Turnage, SGA president, Vanessa Tarpos, SGA vice president, and Owen Parrish, SGA president-elect--has interviewed six architectural firms. Jim Carroll, the capital project program architect, is also on the committee.

"The central classroom Program Requirements Committee started in September of last year," Carroll said. "It contains a group of about 18 or 20 people that has gone through a bit of a change between semesters. We have faculty, staff, administration and students--professional representation from across the campus. The Program Requirements Committee is a group that's been taking a lot of effort on initial research for a central classroom."

The committee's current objective is to recommend an architect to join the team. Parrish said they will go to the Board of Trustees in April with a recommendation for the architectural and design firm.

"Depending on where the structure goes, there will be some opportunities for involvement for students," Parrish said. "It will hopefully be an open process in deciding where the building goes and what it looks like though a provost open forum. We're looking hopefully at the next couple of years, potentially 2013 or 2014 for the construction of the building, but that's a very loose timeline."

Carroll said planning for the central classroom facility has been a steady process.

"The Program Requirements Committee was originally convened to handle quite a few things, including the selection of a recommendation of an architectural design team to complete the programming and to do the design of the facility," Carroll said. "We have another subcommittee that has been evaluating sites on campus to recommend to the Board of Trustees. We have another subcommittee that has been evaluating informational and structural technology needs within the building. That's the type of effort that we've been going through on the large-scale Program Requirements Committee."

Carroll said they plan to add classroom space before tearing any buildings down.

"It's really not our intent to come here and say the first thing we're gonna do is tear down Haley, and then we're going to build a new building and displace all the students. We really can't do that," Carroll said. "We have to work with the population as we have it now by providing new facilities and then seeing if we can replace these outdated facilities at a later time."

Carroll said the goal for the facility is to allow students to excel and to provide newer, flexible, interactive spaces that support new teaching styles. Parrish said they are considering new pedagogies and the way a classroom will look 30 years from now.

"We're looking for a new classroom facility that's going to be the very newest technology," Parrish said. "We're looking 50 years into the future for a building that will not be like the Haley Center 50 years from now. The Haley Center is about 40 years old, and 40 years from now none of us want there to be a building that we're ready to get off campus as much as the Haley Center."