Media lab construction set to begin in January
Broadcast classes to move to Hibbard Hall from Haas Fine Arts
Nick Halter
Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: Campus News
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Senior Lee De Jarlais is one of those students. Every Monday and Friday the class puts a show together in a TV studio in Haas Fine Arts Center.
De Jarlais, who is also a photographer for WQOW-TV 18 in Eau Claire, said the equipment in the studio is a little outdated, making some of the production more difficult.
"There's some stuff that we would like to be able to do, but we don't have the equipment," he said.
De Jarlais and the rest of the class came close to having that equipment and a brand new television studio this semester, but a delay in a project to build a new media center in Hibbard Hall prevented it from happening.
However, after a summer of further planning, UW-Eau Claire officials said the project is now back on track.
Assemblage Architects, based in Madison, is finalizing the design for the $1.4 million center, which will serve the communication and journalism department on the first floor of Hibbard.
Construction is set to begin in January, said Terry Classen, director of Facilities Planning and Management, with the intent of having the center operating for the fall semester of 2008.
Originally, the university planned to open the center this semester, but due to disagreement among the people involved with the plan, construction was delayed more than five months, Classen said.
"With the original plans … not all the users were involved with it as much as they should have," he said. "During the delay, we've involved (more users)."
David Baker, interim communication and journalism department chair, said the new plan is running smoothly and on schedule.
Baker, who took over as chair after the spring 2007 semester, said the planning committee was not large enough when the funds for the project were approved in February 2006.
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