Campus benefits from summer renovations

Most prominent is the nearly $5 million renovation of the Rowenhorst Student Center (RSC). The redesign has resulted in an attractive and functional student services mall with comfortable lounge areas and easy access to an expanded bookstore and post office; a cyber café, “The Hub,” with patio seating; and offices for student development, international and intercultural affairs, and health and counseling services. The RSC also provides student meeting spaces, classrooms, and facilities for student government, the yearbook and campus security.

A 30-foot-wide section of the roof was raised six feet and rimmed with windows, adding height and light to the interior of the building. The clerestory windows in the roof make the facility brighter with every light turned off than the old RSC was with every light on.

In the science wing of Van Peursem Hall, a large classroom was converted to a biology lab with an adjoining cadaver lab. Two other biology labs received significant renovation, including new cabinetry, workstations and furniture.

Other summer projects included repointing and retucking all mortar joints in Colenbrander Hall, repairing the roofs of Heemstra Hall and the Bultman Center, and completing new landscaping on the west and south sides of Van Peursem Hall. Crews also did miscellaneous painting, carpeting and concrete projects and moved the nursing faculty into offices in Wiersma Cottage on the northwestern edge of campus.