Ground broken for building
Groundbreaking for a larger and more modern engineering building occurred in a ceremony Thursday with remarks beforehand from Lieutenant Governor, Olene Walker along with others.
Walker said the new engineering building stand as a symbol of looking to the future.
“The whole array of computer knowledge and the whole array of new discoveries in the 20th century are mostly based in engineering,” she said. “The remarkable thing about change is how fast it occurs. This building will house students in the next 10, 20 and 50 years that will discover and build things we can’t even imagine.”
Bruce Bishop, dean for the College of Engineering, said an outdoor open house also occurred during the day along with the ceremony. The open house featured displays and projects from engineering students.
Bishop said part of the funding for the new building comes from the state and part of it will come from private donations.
Funding from the state was approved one year ago, he said, but the state will only fund up to $23 million for the two-phase project and the college has to come up with $10 million to finish it.
“We have $3 million already in pledges and cash,” Bishop said. “And we’re optimistic that in the next year we will have the money to complete the second phase.”
Robert Davis, director of industrial and professional relations in engineering, said, “Bishop has become a world champion legislative arm twister” in getting this project through legislation.
“When it comes to making this building a reality, Bruce Bishop is the real deal,” Davis said.
Walker said, “To have this building come through the legislative process was a miracle.”
However, Bishop said the Utah Legislature has been very supportive of the new engineering building.
He said, two years ago, Governor Mike Leavitt made it a goal to double the number of graduate students in the engineering field in Utah.
The state of Utah is paying $16 million to cover the costs for the first phase of the project, Bishop said.
The first phase involves building the new engineering facility, he said.
“The building should be fully operational and used for labs and activities by the fall of 2003,” Bishop said.
Right now, the existing Engineering Laboratory Building is only 30,000 square feet, but the new building will be 100,000 square feet, he said. The existing classroom building will eventually be torn down.
The second phase includes a connection between the new building and the existing Engineering Laboratory Building.
It will also include renovating the lab building to make it more modern, he said, and tearing down the breezeway between the lab and classroom buildings.
“The new engineering building is needed because there have been so many changes to the engineering program in the last 15 to 16 years,” Bishop said.
There has been an increase in student enrollment, a higher demand on lab facilities and equipment and faculty growth, he said.
“It was 16 years ago when we began to justify the need for a new building,” he said.
Most of its functions are going to serve student needs, he said.
The new facility will house many large and small classrooms with the latest technology, he said, significantly improving the classroom/teacher environment.
The third floor will be designed to be a student success center, he said.
“It will have all the things necessary for helping students with their program in the college,” he said.
This includes an advising center, an internship and job placement center, an area for students to use for clubs and organizations, a study lounge and library and a large computer lab with open access to students, Bishop said.
He said one of the reasons this building is important is because “without engineering most things we take for granted in our daily lives would simply stop.”
Walker said, “We hope this engineering building will bring a lot of capable students to USU and will graduate a lot of capable students, but our greatest hope is that they will stay in Utah and help us build a strong economy.”