Newest Building Goes Online

From Today@Sam:

All of the groups who have moved into the recently completed Academic Building Four have made the transition smoothly and are ready for classes to begin, according to Physical Plant director Doug Greening.

The first floor of AB4 now houses the testing, Honors, and scholarship offices and has one honors classroom. The S.A.M. Center, Computer Services, a computer lab, a 286-seat auditorium and classrooms are located on the second floor.

The library science department, psychology and philosophy department office, and classrooms are now on the third floor, as well as psychology faculty offices. The history department and philosophy faculty offices are on the fourth floor. Though those groups are moved into the building, there are still a few minor "punch-list items" that have yet to be completed.

"The inside of the building is ready to go, except for a few minor touch-up things they are working on," Greening said, which include paint touch-ups and a leak in the roof on the interior.

The completion of the outside of the building is pending two ramps and some brick trim work on the exterior that could not be finished because the brick wasn't available at that time. Greening said it will be finished at a later date.

"They're finishing a ramp and a brick wall on the Academic Building 3 side of the building, and they will build a ramp between the building and Lee Drain," he said, adding that the ramps will be used to facilitate moving such things as equipment from building to building.

Now that those departments are moved out of their old spaces, other areas of campus will also be moving and other areas will be gaining more space. The area used by the psychology department in the Lee Drain Building will house doctoral students, at least temporarily, Greening said.

The space left in the basement of the Newton Gresham Library, where the library science department and the Academic Enrichment Center previously called home, will be "turned back over to the library," he added. Though just in the planning phases, the library is planning to use the space to add librarian offices and a conference room and expand the government documents section and computer technicians' offices. The music listening room will be moved there, as well as a combined Copy Room, microforms room and interlibrary loans, according to library business manager Jackie Conrad. In addition, the university archives will be moved from the Peabody Building to the fourth floor of the library due to the increased space.