Honors Link

When fall term starts, Honors College students wondering where the college’s offices, classrooms, and student facilities have gone are advised to look up.

After leaving Strand Agricultural Hall and spending one year on the second floor of Weniger Hall, the HC will move this summer to its permanent home at the top of the brand new Learning Innovation Center nearing completion on the west side of campus. The ‘LInC’ is primarily a building for classrooms, adding 2,300 seats of teaching space to the Corvallis campus. But university administrators wanted the building to also have permanent anchor residents, and when former UHC Dean Dan Arp was approached about moving, there was no hesitation.

With expanded and custom-designed student, office, and classroom facilities to support a student population that has nearly doubled in the past five years, the HC’s new space reflects the important role of the college in attracting new students to the university. The Honors College will occupy the west end of the top two floors of the building.

UHC Board of Regents visits the construction site in November, 2014

“We’ve been so involved in the design process from conception to implementation,” says Toni Doolen, the current dean of the HC. “The classrooms are created specifically for the HC pedagogical approach, and there’s beautiful space that we can use for our larger events, such as our research mixers.”

Although HC alumni fondly remember the “SLUG” – the student lounge located in the basement of Strand Hall – students next year will enjoy amenities previous HC undergrads could only imagine, including, of all things, natural light – not to mention a dazzling view of the Oregon Coast Range.

“The student lounge space will provide opportunities for small group, individual, and large group work that we just haven’t had the physical layout to support,” says Dean Doolen. “It will give HC students a great campus home in between classes, after hours, and throughout the day to network with other students and do their work.”

Architects on the project visited the HC last winter to meet with current students and discuss design and layout options for the new spaces. Brittany Sundberg, an HC senior majoring in English and business, was one of the students who participated. “It was really nice to give some input,” she says, “especially because students will be the ones using those lounges the most. They were really interested in what we want in the new spaces and what we’d change about the designs.” The new lounges will include spaces for both quiet and social activities, computers, and a small kitchen.

Dean Doolen is also excited by the possibilities the new space presents in building new connections across campus and with external supporters and prospective students.

“It gives us the opportunity to share the scholarship that comes out of our college with the broader OSU community,” she says. Moreover, the centrally-located and state-of-the-art facilities “send a strong visual message to parents and perspective students. It shows how important the Honors College is to the greater institution. It speaks to the commitment of the university to the mission of the Honors College to serve high-capability students and provide an experience that matches their capacity.”

The rest of the building will reinforce the message that OSU is a place dedicated to innovative learning.

Dr. Kevin Ahern, professor of biochemistry and biophysics and director of undergraduate research at OSU, as well as a member of the Honors College’s Board of Regents, has been on the building design committee since the beginning of the project.

“The classrooms are absolutely state of the art,” he says. “We have two classrooms that are unlike anything else in the country.” There are two circular classrooms – including a 600-seat lecture hall, in which no student will be more than eight rows from the lecturer – and a parliament-style room, with curved rows of seats facing each other and the instructor in the middle.

“I’m looking forward to teaching there,” he says. “The fact that the Honors College is sitting right on top is just the frosting on the cake.” Indeed, Ahern – who writes new lyrics to popular melodies as a hobby – has penned a tune in honor of the space. A recording of the song can be heard here.

When the building opens in the fall of 2015, it promises to have a significant impact on the student experience. For Dean Doolen, it is certainly a game-changer for the Honors College. “The new space gives us the kind of facilities our students have always deserved. This is a home that demonstrates our commitment to creating an environment that reflects the amazing abilities of our students and sets them up to realize their enormous potential.”

The Honors College is scheduled to be fully moved into its new space by the beginning of fall term classes.