Alter Hall has stood as Xavier University’s main academic building, housing over one-fourth of the campus’s classrooms, for over fifty years. This has been the sentiment around XU for at least the past decade, as it is one of the buildings planned to be torn down in the long-term vision of the University, established in 2000.
Dr. Scott Chadwick, the Provost and Chief Academic Officer,
made the construction of a new academic building one of his initial priorities for his first year here at XU.
Chadwick, via Carol Reid, the administrative secretary for Life & Leadership, the Office of the Provost and Student Life and Leadership, sent an e-mail on Tuesday to faculty, staff and students, requesting their presence during conversational meetings with Xavier’s affiliated architecture, planning and design firm, Shepley Bulfinch.
“We are now at the point of formalizing discussions across
campus about the possibility of a new academic building on campus,”Chadwick said in the e-mail correspondence.
The primary focus of the conversations with the architects was based upon the question of what is the ideal classroom. “From Shepley Bulfinch’s perspective,
they will benefit from hearing about how students learn,
what spaces students feel are ideal for learning and student interaction, the possibilities that new spaces for collaboration and new technologies might afford us, and
the like,” Chadwick said. Shepley Bulfinch hopes to understand everything Xavier is looking for in this new building, devise an idea from the conversations and return by the end of the calendar year with an estimated
cost for the project. If the estimated cost does not
fit Xavier’s budget or financial plan, the project be postponed to allow for further discussion. Students are excited for Alter Hall to come down as the building has become a staple of inaccessibility, strange smell, poorly functioning ventilation and inadequate lighting.
“The building is extremely inaccessible and the elevator breaks on occasion. Also, the classrooms are not conducive for a proper learning environment,” senior Jess
Finkel said. All students invited to the discussions on Tuesday were placed into a drawing for a gift card to
Subway or the Bookstore as an incentive to attend.