Purdue trustees name academic units, 4 buildings, 1 department

November 19, 2004

Purdue trustees name academic units, 4 buildings, 1 department

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Purdue University Board of Trustees today (Friday, Nov. 19) approved the renaming of seven academic schools and the naming of four campus buildings.

The trustees approved designating seven academic schools –agriculture, consumer and family sciences, education, liberal arts, pharmacy, nursing and health sciences, science, and technology – as colleges instead of schools by January. In April the board approved a similar name change for the College of Engineering.

Provost Sally Mason said the renaming of the academic schools to colleges better suits the breadth of programs offered.

"College better reflects the comprehensive, multidisciplinary range of academic programs offered by the schools," Mason said. "College conveys the notion of a unit which incorporates a number of different, but complementary, disciplines. Use of the name college rather than school also is more consistent with the naming of academic units at many of our peer institutions."

Purdue's Krannert School of Management will continue to be referred to as a school, in keeping with naming standards among business schools. The School of Veterinary Medicine also will retain school status.

The board also voted to make official the previously announced naming of the Richard and Patricia Lawson Hall of Computer Science, the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, the Fred and Mary Ford Dining Court, and the Yue-Kong Pao (pronounced u-KONG pow) Hall of Visual and Performing Arts.

The Richard and Patricia Lawson Hall of Computer Science will be home to four classrooms, five instructional laboratories, four research laboratories, meeting rooms, and space for 45 faculty, 55 teaching assistants and 70 research assistants. The facility will play a major role in augmenting the research in many computer-related fields, such as network security. The Lawsons donated $4.7 million for the $20 million, 100,000-square-foot building, for which ground was broken in October at the northwest corner of Third and University streets. Completion is expected before the start of the 2006 fall semester.

The Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering will house the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, School of Materials Engineering, Office of the Dean of Engineering and the Department of Engineering Education. The building also will be home to a variety of engineering programs, including the Minorities in Engineering Program, Women in Engineering Program and Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS). University officials broke ground on the $47.7 million facility at Northwestern and Stadium avenues on Oct. 16, and completion is expected in May 2007. The building is named after Purdue's most famous alumnus, who was the first man to walk on the moon.

The $18 million, two-story Fred and Mary Ford Dining Court on the corner of Stadium Avenue and Russell Street, just south of Ross-Ade Stadium, has seating for 800. It opened this fall to students, faculty, staff and the community. The university's first freestanding dining facility, it offers eight serving areas that each feature a different food style. It is named for Purdue executive vice president and treasurer emeritus Frederick R. Ford and his wife, Mary.

The 166,700-square-foot Yue-Kong Pao Hall for Visual and Performing Arts is Purdue's new home for art and design, dance, music and theatre. Located at Marsteller and Wood streets, the $43.4 million building opened in fall 2003. Work continues on a portion of the interior. Pao was a Chinese business leader who died in 1991. He was a friend and adviser to Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and was responsible for arranging President Ronald Reagan's visit to China in 1983. The building was named in his honor at the request of an anonymous donor who provided a $4 million gift for the facility.

The trustees also formally approved advancing the Department of Biomedical Engineering from a department to a school within the College of Engineering and naming it the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. The change in status is in recognition of the expansion of the unit's offerings to include undergraduate as well as graduate programs. The name honors the Weldon family, which donated $10 million to the program.

Trustees also approved a request to lease 30,000 square feet of space in Purdue Research Park to house the approximately 140 employees who will work on OnePurdue, an initiative to integrate the university administrative information systems. The lease calls for annual rent of $360,000 per year for three years with an optional one-year renewal.

Writer: J. Michael Willis, (765) 494-0371, jmwillis@purdue.edu

Sources: Sally Mason, (765) 494-9709, sfmason@purdue.edu

Wayne Kjonaas, vice president for physical facilities, (765) 494-8000, wwkjonaas@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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