Science Center Opens
Washington College opened the new John S. Toll Science Center
this January, jubilant that it had raised 100 percent of the
$2.8 million required to secure a $750,000 challenge grant from
The Kresge Foundation. The gifts and pledges will help pay for
the new 45,000-square-foot facility—named in honor of
Washington College’s  25th
president—and for renovations to the Dunning/Decker Science
Complex to begin later this year.
“It took a significant act of courage to accept a challenge
to raise $2.8 million within nine months,” said College
President Baird Tipson. “Our entire development staff
and Dr. John Toll, who has worked tirelessly during his sabbatical
year, deserve a huge congratulations for their success in meeting
this challenge with the help and generosity of our alumni and
Board.”
Still, the opening of the new facility was not without some
“hiccups.”
“We opened on the first day of the spring semester, January
19, although we had originally planned to have it completed
by late December,” said H. Louis Stettler, Senior Vice
President of Finance and Management. Held up by construction
delays, the opening was further delayed while the College awaited
an occupancy permit from the State Fire Marshall’s Office,
Stettler explained.
But that was just the beginning of a rocky start for science
faculty and students. Even as the spring semester began, some
furniture and equipment had yet to be installed, and the laboratory
ventilation hoods weren’t operational. With the 94-seat
lecture hall incomplete, science faculty are still teaching
their introduction survey courses in Norman James Theatre.
“It’s unfortunate that we can’t just wave
a magic wand to have all the inconveniences of construction
disappear,” says Stettler, “but unfortunately this
is the price we pay to build a state-of-the-art facility. The
only option was to move between semesters. There are some bugs
to work out in the new building, and laboratory space will be
at a premium until renovations to the Dunning/Decker complex
are completed.”
The Science Center, meant to house just the biology, chemistry
and environmental studies departments, is temporarily pushed
to its limits, accommodating psychology and physics teaching
and research in two labs and two seminar rooms originally designated
for the biology and chemistry programs. Displaced professors
from physics and psychology are occupying a “Trailer Village”
next to the Science Complex until renovations to the Dunning/Decker
Complex are completed.
The official dedication of the John S. Toll Science Center is
set for April 22.
|
|
|
