Current Release: September 11th, 2007 | Vol. XXIV Iss. 10

photo courtesy vwc.edu

The science building’s mysterious dilemma

By heather templeton

hntemplton@vwc.edu

In December 2006 Virginia Wesleyan announced plans for a LEED-Certified Platinum Green Laboratory

Science Building, but since the announcement the science department has seen little progress in the planning or construction of such a building.

“The faculty just doesn’t know anything,” said Victor Townsend, associate professor of biology.

The plans were first made in August 2006, said Townsend. The faculty and planning committee were to meet in summer 2007 to work on blueprints, but that never happened.

The department was also told they were going to a facility planning workshop with Project Kaleidoscope. The workshop would have been used as a forum for leaders to discuss how to design spaces that would accommodate the evolution of science, incorporate sustainability, and enable teachers to make the most effective use of technology. That never happened, either. The department was told that its reservation for the workshop was canceled by the school.

According to a press release put out by the school, the new building is to be started this coming fall. However, without the faculty seeing blueprints or having made any plans, they are skeptical about the groundbreaking taking place at all.

The new building is currently being used as advertising for prospective students, said Townsend.

“Prospective students seem to know more about it than we do,” he said.

It is evident that it is crucial for the department to have the new academic building.

“We have a crunch in lab space,” said Townsend.

Students within the departmental majors are increasing, along with faculty. The department has almost doubled according to Townsend.

He said that as the department grows it is now more comparable to other school programs in the state, but they are still lacking lab space.

“Our total lab space is the minimum for only a bio program at other schools,” he said.

The five labs that Blocker now houses are already being used Monday through Friday from early morning classes to evening classes, just so that each class can get in.

Junior Melissa Stevenson an interdivisional major in natural sciences has experienced the crunch in lab space and knows that the new science building is needed.

“The facilities are very inadequate and there aren’t enough of them,” she said. “They do OK for what we have – it’s just not enough. It’s old and it leaks. It leaks from the chem lab to the bio lab.”

Stevenson was also concerned that many students have to go to Old Dominion University for some of their lab classes, because they just cannot be done here in the space that the school has.

As the department continues to grow and expand, both faculty and students are concerned that the new building will not come soon enough, if at all.