Antioch reopens Science Building
Read companion article “Antioch launches new curriculum”

By Robert Mihalek

Antioch College celebrated the reopen-ing of a partly renovated Science Building with a ribbon-cutting ceremony last Friday.

The ceremony also marked the launch of the college’s new curriculum, which features learning communities, since first-year students will study under the new system in the Science Building’s rehabbed first floor.

Speaking before about 50 people at the ceremony, Rick Jurasek, the interim president of the college, said this was a “significant chapter for the college…a significant year for the college…a significant building for the college.”

Renovating the Science Building is part of the renewal plan, also known as the Plan for Antioch College, under which the college has revamped its curriculum to feature learning communities in which students study together as a group under the tutelage of several professors.

Bob Loversidge, an architect with Schooley-Caldwell Associates, which designed the renovation plans, said the plan would provide students with improved housing, a better library and a “student union that works.”

Three learning communities are clustered in different parts of the rehabbed floor in the Science Building. Each ELC has three rooms, one of which is of significant size, in which to gather. Loversidge said the classroom spaces were designed to be flexible to accommodate the needs of the new educational program.

He said the architects lightened and brightened the rehabbed space. The new classrooms have modern furniture and lighting, new flooring and paint, and modern technology.

Over the summer, Antioch spent $1.5 million to improve facilities on campus. In addition to the Science Building, the college renovated Birch Hall, a student dorm, and tore down Presidents dorm.

The original Science Building was completed in 1931 with funds donated by Charles Kettering, the head of research and development for General Motors and a trustee of the college. Scott Sanders, the Antioch University archivist, said during last week’s ceremony that the building “served a key role” in an effort by Arthur Morgan, the college president at the time, “to establish a climate conducive to research at his new Antioch.”