USD Magazine, Winter 2000

Right: Students currently have to set up their exper– iments in one lab and hand carry them to another because facilities are so over-used.

stations like these where students can experiment on the latest equipment.

Single-Cell Organism The most important aspect of a new science center, professors say, is simply uniting the university's physically scattered biology, chemistry, marine sciences and physics departments. Communication and collabora– tion between science faculty that has relied on e-mail, memos and phone rag will become a face-co-face affair. "If you want to talk to someone about something you're working on, you have to get up and walk a couple of blocks," says Sister Patricia Shaffer, who retired last year after reaching chemistry for 40 years. "Thar doesn't seem like such a big deal, bur it is. Thar's valuable rime lost on something as simple as talking with a colleague." Beyond the unification of the departments, rhe center wi ll allow for classes in multiple science disciplines. Chemistry classes char are nor so lab-intensive and similar classes in marine science could be combined, making for a richer, diverse curriculum and prevent– ing overlap in related sciences.

"We've got one small compurer room here in Camino," says Dwyer, "and it's in use all the rime. Ir's a small room with no windows and one table, and it's where the students gather." The departments got partial relief in 1996, when a temporary Science Annex faci lity was erected behind Camino Hall. There, two general chemistry labs feature hooded work stations and the latest in equipment, including spectrometers and instruments for thermodynamics and chro– matography. Designed to be moved into the new building, they are the prototype of the lab/classroom of the future. The Science Annex boasts five other labs for environmen– tal, rock and wet lab study. "It's where we can do modern chemistry," says Dwyer. "When you walk into the labs down here in Camino, it just smells like chemistry. It gees all over you. Over there, you don't smell anything. Ir's how a lab should look."

"So many of the things we reach in biolo– gy classes are taught in other classes," says biology professor Sue Lowery. "Ir's natural and normal for those classes to be offered together in the same place." The new building also will improve the reputations of already highly regarded pro– grams. In their report to the board of trustees, faculty said the new building will allow them to "expand successful reaching programs, promote interdisciplinary research, reaching and learning, provide adequate space for current enrollment, achieve safety standards and enhance recruitment of faculty and students." "Ir will change the way we teach," Lowery says simply. Designs call for centrally located faculty offices with surrounding classrooms and labs. Large, auditorium-style lecture rooms will share lab prep spaces that are mere feet from the podium and front of class. Professors can prepare experiments when they need them, without the risk of moving flasks and beakers,

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