CHaSS reveals plan for new building
A new building is in the works for USU’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The college has never had its own building.
According to CHaSS Associate Dean Charlie Huenemann, the building will sit among and wrap around the Ray. B West Building. Huenemann said the discussion of a new building has been going on for about a year. It is tentatively expected to be finished within five years.
“The idea is to have a new building that is a teaching and learning center,” Huenemann said.
The classrooms will be built to encourage discussion with aisles in the middle of lecture halls and rooms that can be broken into smaller classrooms, Huenemann said.
“What we’re really excited about is state-of-the-art teaching rooms big and small,” he said.
Huenemann said while the new building will feature classrooms, the college administration offices will remain in Old Main.
The building will also include a common place for students to gather and a cafe.
“We’re thinking about the CHaSS cafe as being a place to have international news playing,” Huenemann said. “We want this to be a focus center for international education.”
Professors and students are excited for all the departments to be housed in the same building.
“It’ll be nice to have a center for our college, because humanities at the moment are scattered everywhere,” said Candi Carter Olson, a journalism professor.
The college held a meeting last semester with faculty and students to generate ideas and receive student input for the building plans.