After lack of funding delayed completion of the Scripps College of Communication’s Schoonover Center for Communication, it is now on track to be completed by fall 2014.
The Schoonover Center’s original completion date was set for spring 2013, but was pushed back due to lack of state funding. However, Ohio University’s Board of Trustees recently approved funding of the building through debt issuance.
The first phase of construction is set to be completed in Aug. 2013 and will cost $22.5 million. More than 75 percent of this phase will be paid for with university debt issuance.
Phase two is anticipated to cost a total of $17.4 million, with university debt accounting for almost 70 percent of the cost.
The five schools in Scripps College of Communication are currently spread throughout 11 different locations on campus. Scott Titsworth, interim dean of Scripps College of Communication, said he feels that housing all five colleges in one building will be a huge advantage to students and faculty.
“We’re hoping the atmosphere of having students studying all types of journalism under one roof will promote collaboration between schools,” Titsworth said. “With people cross-training between media outlets, it will be more like the way media works in real job-like settings.”
The new building will be home to new cutting-edge technology packages and modern classroom designs set up to promote more interaction between students and faculty members within the different colleges, Titsworth said.
“Scripps Hall is great, but it is beginning to show signs of wear and tear,” said Robert Stewart, director of E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. “The new building will feel like a new place, a new home, and students will like that.”
One of the largest classrooms will hold up to 103 students. However, the set up will be less like a lecture hall setting, Titsworth said. The room will boast large round tables for group activity on projects and for students to discuss and work together in problem-solving based learning.
“I’m very excited about this transition,” said Ryan Boyd, a junior studying journalism. “It should create more resources for students and improve what is already an excellent school at Ohio.”
It is the hope of Titsworth and faculty members throughout campus that it will be the best in the country and market well for the university.
“It will give us the resources to teach in a very contemporary way and hopefully help to recruit top tier students,” Titsworth said. “From anyone’s point of view it will be really cutting-edge and people will be proud to show it off.”
With the completion of phase one in 2013, the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, dean’s office and the School of Media Arts and Studies will move in to the Schoonover Center. The other three schools will follow suit with the completion of the Schoonover Center in 2014.
Scripps Hall and the Sing Tao House will be used as the “Innovation Center”, housing special project space and space for group organizations.
jb351009@ohiou.edu
