The COAD science building is adding 10,000 square feet of state-of-the-art labs, collaborative learning space and offices. Crowded labs and learning spaces call for the need of a building expansion as students and faculty have received a great amount of prestigious scholarships, internships and grants for their work.
President Timothy Trainor says, “We want to provide them the facilities they need and deserve to advance science and technology in areas needed in society.”
The estimate of the project costing about $4.1 million with $2 million coming from a state capital grant the Mount has recently secured and the remaining funds already on hand which have been donated to the Mount during the Forward fundraising campaign.
Trainor added, “We are also working to raise an additional $2 million to add 5,000 more square feet to the expansion in a phase 2 of the project in the future.”
The number of Mount students in these disciplines has grown by 30% over the past four years and space is needed in the COAD science building.
A sketch of the new building renovation was made in late 2018, with the anticipation to start renovating the building in 2024 but due to early funding, the plan will start earlier.
Dr. Kraig Sheetz, Executive Vice President stated, “The Mount being a small school provides big school opportunities, this is why we need the expansion of the building to have a collaborative space for talented faculty and students.”
Sheetz expressed a need for collaborative space for students, space for faculty offices, classes and relevance in current equipment. “A prospective student might ask the relevancy of our current equipment in the field and we want that relevance to show as our foundation,” he remarked.
The expansion of the science building will provide this foundation for relevance and new space provides new opportunities for growing majors such as Neuroscience and Data Science.
Dr. Christine McCauslin, interim Dean of the School of Natural Science and Mathematics said, “This expansion will bring us all together for research opportunities and will provide open doors for students to be active, we are super excited.”
McCauslin and Sheetz both hope for renovation in the spaces that they have now in the science building for a greater environment.