By Kelsi Peace, Managing Editor
Renovation of the Don Morris Center’s second and third floors continues on schedule as painting on the second floor began the next step in what Dr. Royce Money, president of the university, has called ashowpiece for the university.
Work on the student media newsroom began in May, displacing the Journalism and Mass Communication Department and the Art and Design Department this fall.
The move-in remains scheduled one week after grades are due in December, at which point the university will unveil a cutting-edge multi-media newsroom.
“It is a one-of-a-kind student media operation,” said Dr. Cheryl Bacon, journalism and mass communication department chair. “There was a commitment to make this a showplace – it’s a unique facility.”
The project is a long time coming – plans have been in the work since 2000, Bacon said, and finally took shape with $1.1 million in donations, largely from the Shelton Family Foundation.
Once completed, the newsroom will contain offices for the media editors, workstations for page and video editors and offer a venue for the converged media the department is working toward. A separate entrance to the second-floor newsroom sets the facility apart from the rest of the building.
Bacon said 10 years ago the Prickly Pear and Optimist existed separately; today the staff collaborates not only with the Pear, but also with Web and video outlets.
“It’s the next logical thing to fold into,” Bacon said.
She added that the facility will “enhance collaboration for the benefit of the classroom, research and scholarship.”
No name has been selected for the newsroom, but Bacon said names are under consideration.
“We want the name to reflect how truly unique the space is,” she said.
In the meantime, the department has been “camping out” in the Hardin Administration Building, making “Camp JMC” T-shirts that read: “Where progress is an adventure,” and working from computer labs across campus.
“We’ll be glad to get back home,” Bacon said.
The art department anticipates the move-in, too, along with the new project equipment, lecture facilities and computer lab that will accompany the facility, said Kitty Wasemiller, professor of art and design.
“It looks like they’ve made very good progress,” Wasemiller said. “Everyday something important happens.”
While the interior design and pre-architecture areas were reduced by the renovation, Wasemiller said re-configuring office space by moving faculty offices to the third floor allowed them to use the space to their advantage. Interior design and prearchitecture classrooms will remain on the second floor.
“It gives us a better format for teaching our various classes,” she said. “Certainly it’ll be nice to have things more appropriate for the learning we provide.”
The department will furnish the space with new project equipment and largescreen TVs for facilitating lectures, a technology upgrade Wasemiller says is vital.
“In interior design and prearchitecture, it’s essential, the way that in business you work with your clientele and those who carry out the work is heavily based in technology,” she said.
Both departments are optimistic about the timeline and final product of the construction.
“Everyone has worked really hard to keep us on schedule,” Bacon said.
The department still needs funds for additional equipment, and Bacon said plans are in the works to obtain grants.
Although the renovation will be complete in time for the spring semester, Bacon said the department will officially unveil the newsroom in Fall 2008, with a soft opening this spring. In the fall, the newsroom will be outfitted with new computers as part of the three-year upgrade provided by the LINKfunded lab, and Bacon said students, staff and faculty will have had time to settle in.
“It’s kind of like opening weekend in a restaurant,” Bacon said. “You want to get things running smoothly in the kitchen before you invite too many people.”
