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Administrators plan new Center for Student Excellence |
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Tuesday, 11 April 2006 |
by CLAIR BAXTER
News Editor
Plans are underway for a Center for Student Excellence, a facility that
will take the space Coffey Residence Hall and the Plemmons Student
Union amphitheater currently occupy.
Five departments participate in the plans for the Center for Student
Excellence. They include Appalachian & the Community Together, the
Center for Student Involvement and Leadership, Heltzer Honors Program,
International Programs and the Office of Student Research.
A new institute for environmental consciousness and sustainability
is being discussed as a possibility for the sixth program.
“This will create a facility where students can go into one place and
see six different programs that they could participate in to enhance
their college experience,” Student Programs Director Dave L. Robertson
said.
Robertson said construction on the building, which is not officially named, is tentatively scheduled for May 2008.
“It will also allow our current offices to create exciting, innovative programs that are more comprehensive,” Robertson said.
According to a proposal from the Board of Trustees meeting, “This plan
affords us the opportunity to create a center that will give all these
departments state of the art space to carry out their missions that so
naturally dovetail with one another.”
According to the proposal, the Center for Student Excellence will
provide a better space for the honors program (currently housed in East
Residence Hall) and International Programs (housed in I.G. Greer Hall).
Robertson said the committee has discussed using energy reducing
technology, lots of natural light and collecting rainwater through a
drain for use in toilets.
“This will be good news for students because it will be the most energy
efficient building on campus and so utilities will be much less,”
Robertson said.
The committee is also considering the use of solar panels to heat water
in the building and plans to build both buildings to Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design standards.
We want to “reduce the impact of buildings on the environment,”
Robertson said. “This type of construction will allow people to feel
better and work better.”
The plans also include meeting spaces, seminar rooms, smart classrooms,
a computer lab and a 4,000- to 5,000-seat auditorium/theater.
The committee plans to meet with architects to being plans for the preliminary phase of the center this week.
The committee has also discussed possibilities for the vacant space the ACT office and CSIL would leave behind.
Robertson said he would love to turn CSIL’s current space into a club
and organization center with mailboxes, storage space, work areas and
computer access.
He also said space left by the ACT office could eventually be taken
over by International Appalachian or the Renewable Energy Initiative.
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