Issue date: 3/4/10 Section: Campus News

Media Credit: Leslie Ballantine The new education building will be the first academic building built at UW-Eau Claire since 1982, said Gail Scukanec, dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences.

The new education building, slated for occupancy during the summer of 2013, will reach about ten percent of completion by this summer, a member of the education building committee said.

Gail Scukanec, dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences, said this is an early phase of the project, known as the pre-design.

"That's the way the state quantifies what we're doing," she said.

In an effort to share information about the new building with the campus and community, the Education Building Committee hosted an open forum last week, with similar meetings that day.

Student senator and junior Jacob Kampen, who attended the open forum, said the focus in the early planning phases seems to be focused on the needs and the height of the building.

"I think it looked like they were doing a good job," he said.

Kampen said he thinks students would support expansion of individual learning and collaboration centers, similar to those found in the library, if there was room in the new building. But, he added, because it will be an academic building, quality classrooms are going to be the biggest focus.

The building's goals from the beginning, Scukanec said, are to bring the separate education units together, meet the classroom needs of the campus and free up space in overcrowded areas, such as Hibbard. The foreign languages department and English department will also move from Hibbard Hall to the new education building. Some student service units will also be housed in the new building, such as writing and tutoring centers.

In addition, Scukanec said, there are spaces being planned for collaborative space, or group meeting places, for students.

One third of the building will be classrooms, with about one eighth of the building offering instructional support and collaborative learning spaces. Essentially, Scukanec said, roughly half of the building will be instructional space.

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