President briefs faculty on construction projects

George Read Hall, under construction on the Laird Campus, is scheduled to
open this fall.

11:28 a.m., April 15, 2005--During the semiannual faculty meeting Monday, April 11, memorial tributes were presented for three colleagues and President David Roselle provided an update on campus construction projects that ranged from the $48 million Center for the Arts to a summer makeover for Magnolia Circle.

“It does appear that next year’s class will be remarkable,” Roselle said, noting that 4,280 parents and admitted students were registered for Delaware Decision Days, held April 9 and April 16. He added that 500 students who have been admitted to the Honors Program were among those attending the first open house.

Several UD students have earned prestigious scholarships, Roselle said, pointing out that two students recently won Truman scholarships of $30,000 for graduate study, three undergraduates received Barry M. Goldwater scholarships of up to $7,500 for tuition, books and room and board and one senior received a Marshall scholarship worth about $100,000 for graduate study in Great Britain.

The 500-bed George Read Hall, the first building in the new Laird Campus Residence Hall Complex, is scheduled to open in the fall, Roselle said. The remaining Pencader Complex sites will be torn down during the spring of 2005 and replaced by two 250-bed buildings. The new complex is in the Georgian style of the main campus.

As part of this project, a new walkway and footbridge extending from the Ray Street Residence Hall Complex to the Laird Campus Complex will replace the current steps, Roselle said. The sidewalks on the left side of North College Avenue also will be widened to better accommodate foot traffic.

Magnolia Circle near the Morris Library was designed by landscape architect Marian Coffin in the early 20th Century to create a transitional space between the former Women’s College campus and the Delaware College campus. The project, to be completed this summer, will transform Magnolia Circle into a “gathering place,” Roselle said. The president said that plans call for brick walkways radiating inward to a water feature with a seating wall.

The new $48 million Center for the Arts is on schedule and slated to be completed in 2006.

Two former fraternity houses near Elliott and Mechanical halls are being renovated to provide offices and a language lab for the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. A central structure, including an elevator and rest rooms, will connect the two buildings.

The new $48 million Center for the Arts is on schedule and slated to be completed in 2006, Roselle said. The center will include new performance space for both music and theatre, a room large enough for the marching band to rehearse and practice rooms for music students. He said he is still looking for a donor or donors to help pay for a 1,000-seat concert hall at the site. “The architectural plan includes a concert hall, and I believe that it will be added later,” he said.

A $22 million renovation of Brown Laboratory will begin this summer, Roselle said. The architecture firm, The Stubbins Associates, of Cambridge, Mass., has been selected to modernize the north and west wings which house teaching and research laboratories of the department of chemistry and biochemistry. The building’s courtyard will be filled in to provide the current environmental and height requirements for NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) equipment.

Tributes for Ken Koford, professor of economics, John C. Wriston Jr., professor emeritus of biochemistry, and Arnold L. Lippert, former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Graduate Studies, may be found online under “In Memoriam 2004” on UDaily.

Article by Cornelia Weil

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