Westfield State University Interim President Dr. Elizabeth Preston, center, is joined by a host of special guests and dignitaries during a groundbreaking ceremony for a new science building on the Westfield State University campus. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – Next to a white tent in the commuter parking lot of Westfield State University yesterday, several shovels gleamed in the fall sunlight, prepared for a moment that has long been in the making.
Westfield State University President Dr. Elizabeth Preston was then joined by state Secretary of Education Dr. Matthew Malone and local leaders and legislators in breaking ground on the university’s new science center, the first new academic building on the Western Avenue campus in over 40 years.
Secretary of Education Dr. Matthew Malone of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for a new science building on the Westfield State University campus yesterday. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
The 54,000-square-foot science center, which is expected to be completed in August 2016, will house laboratory space that will be used by the allied health, biology, environmental science, nursing, and physical and chemical science programs.
Made possible by a 2008 state revenue bond bill which supplied the $33 million required to construct the facility, the school is expecting to raise another $13 million to put toward the new building, including $9 million borrowed from the Massachusetts State College Building Authority and a $3 million grant submitted to the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center that will go towards purchasing supplement equipment and programming.
The school is also looking to fundraise an additional $1 million to put toward equipment and furnishings.
Before of crowd of over 200 people, Preston spoke of what the building will mean for current and future students, as well as for neighbors.
Members of the Westfield State University Chamber Chorale perform the schools Alma Mater during a groundbreaking ceremony for a new science building. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
“Not only will our new science center contain state-of-the-art classrooms, offices and meeting spaces, but its striking design is sure to be a wonderful addition to the Western Avenue streetscape,” said Preston. “Westfield State’s history has been all about blazing new trails that will benefit all of us. This new academic building is just one example of how our historic university – which celebrates its 175th anniversary this month – is meeting the challenges of the 21st-century.”
Contractors clear the land where a new science building will be constructed on the Westfield State University campus between Wilson Hall and the Commuter Lot. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Preston went on to add that the building will not only provide the “technologically sophisticated laboratory spaces that the 21st-century education in sciences and medicine requires”, but it is intended to foster “creative, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation.”
“It promises to be a thriving hub of activity designed to promote experiential learning and creative thinking,” she said.
Student Government Association President Rebecca DiVico then touted the school’s commitment to excellence.
A campus map including the new Westfield State University science building. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
“We may call it the new science building, but it is so much more than that. The building will benefit everyone in the Westfield State community,” said DiVico. “Since it will be adjacent to the commuter parking lot, students from all majors will be flowing in and out of the building. It will become a new gathering place, I’m sure.”
As a senior who will have graduated by the time the building is complete, DiVico hopes that the school’s current crop of freshmen, sophomores and juniors enjoy and treasure the building.
“I’m so excited to see the building take shape and I must confess that I’m a bit envious that first years, sophomores and juniors will get to use it.” she said.
“Perhaps I’ll have to come back for graduate school,” DiVico deadpanned.
Malone spoke last, on behalf of Governor Deval Patrick, currently in Europe, on the state of the Commonwealth’s higher education system and of Westfield State’s place as a leader among the state’s colleges and universities.
“This place is an amazing place that has a storied tradition, an honorable institution. The work that the faculty and staff do is God’s work,” said Malone. “The teachers you put out from this institution are some of the best teachers in the world. Your education program is phenomenal.”
Malone informed the crowd that the new building will be housing an environmental science department, making it one-of-a-kind in the state higher education system.
“This (Westfield State) is an exciting place to be. The work you guys are doing isn’t just the tip of the spear – it is bleeding edge,” he said. “When you think about what the future looks like, it is the people on this campus who are going to design that.”
Following the groundbreaking, several of the people most critical to the project spoke of what it felt like to dig their shovels into the soil to signify the start of long-awaited construction.
“When I was going to school here back in the ’70s, I watched Wilson Hall being built,” said Dr. Curt Robie, WSU’s assistant vice president of facilities and operations. “To see us embarking on a new science building – the first building since then – this is great for the university.”
“It is a facility that is desperately needed for us to keep pace and provide students with the tools to succeed and to move the Commonwealth – and the country – forward,” he said.
A graduate of the school’s criminal justice program, State Sen. Donald R. Humason, Jr. (R-Westfield), was also on hand yesterday and spoke about what it means to see the first academic building in four decades begin construction.
“It was for a higher ed bond bill and for the Commonwealth to commit resources to keeping our colleges relevant and up to date,” said Humason of the 2008 bill which laid the groundwork for the project. “Especially when it comes to the sciences, we need to have the state-of-the-art, because the people we’re competing against around the world are investing.”
“We have to stay current, we have to stay competitive, we have to have to make sure we train our next generation of students in the best technology available,” he said. “I’m content that that will be the case here.”
