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By Barbara Phillips Long, August 23, 2008

Last updated: Saturday, August 23, 2008 1:21 AM EDT

When Shippensburg University students start classes Monday, many will be enjoying newly renovated classrooms in Dauphin Humanities Center.

The building was originally built in 1969 and forms part of what the university calls the “academic quad” with Shippen Hall, which houses education; the Ezra Lehman Memorial Library; and John L. Grove Hall, where the business college is headquartered.

The office of James Mike, the dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, is now in the newly built extension of Dauphin Humanities Center overlooking the quad. Now all three deans will have offices on the quad, close to students and faculty members.

“It has already increased traffic in our office,” Mike said. Having the dean’s office in Old Main “was okay but not user friendly.”

Staff members praised the attractiveness of the new office and the brightness of the rooms, which have a lot of natural light. Laurie Stader and Bonnie Heming both moved from Old Main to the new building.

“I think we were all just excited to come to a new place,” Stader said.

Visitors have admired the new office, Heming said, which has a reception area and is “a lot more student friendly.”

Even so, Heming will miss the friends she made in Old Main and its cafe. “I was there every morning,” she said.

Mixing students and faculty

President William Ruud praised “the new home for the College of Arts and Sciences,” saying it will allow “the faculty to do what they do best — teach and mentor.”

Construction cost about $9 million and “it is worth every penny,” Ruud said.

The grey extension on the building houses a new lounge area at the ground floor entrance and a first-floor lounge with vending machines and a balcony overlooking the entrance. Both Ruud and Mike praised the area, saying it will allow students to study together and to socialize, but also allow faculty members to mix with students or have informal meetings with small groups of students.

The lounge area will also have a wireless internet connection so students can use their computers, said Pete Gigliotti, director for university communications and marketing.

Flexible facilities

Classrooms have been designed to be versatile, Mike said. All of the furnishings in the seminar rooms are on wheels, including the tables, so the room can be used for lectures, discussions or in other ways.

Seminar rooms have translucent glass on the corridor walls, so some light filters through the rooms into the hallways.

Classrooms have updated wiring and offer the ability to use contemporary instructional equipment, such as smart boards and student response systems.

Room 051 has been designed for viewing films or handling large lecture classes. It seats 144 and has two bays for wheelchairs at the front of the classroom.

Michael Pressler, a professor in the English department, teaches classes about film. He will be using room 051 once the projector and speakers are installed.

He said he will have the ability to control the image on the screen and will also be able to dim and raise the lights gradually, instead of blinding students suddenly when he turns the lights back on after a film clip has been shown. He’s looking forward to being able to manage the lighting and images more effectively.

In addition to the English department and the dean’s office, Dauphin Humanities Center will house the departments of human communication studies, history/philosophy and economics.

The new facilities should get hard use, Gigliotti said. Because so many required courses are offered by the College of Arts and Sciences, “virtually every student is going to come through here in his or her career.”