We're Building for the Future
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
There have been big changes on the Benedictine College campus over the summer! Aladdin Campus Dining is our new food service provider. Bishop Fink Hall now has an elevator and new restrooms. A new men’s residence hall, St. Gabriel Hall, and two new Row Houses have been completed and will be occupied in the fall.
Building for the Future
The time is coming when you will see even more dramatic changes! Excitement is building toward the demolition of the existing College Library and construction of a new 53,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art showcase of higher education! Set to open in the fall of 2025, the new Library will have triple the study space of the old facility, plus more space in the stacks, new classrooms, individual study areas, rooms and tables for group study, a reading room, the Rare Books room, a coffee shop, and more.
The facility will also include a museum-quality replica of the Assembly Room in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the U.S. Constitution was ratified. This room will be a beacon of hope for all and will be a place where the founding principles of constitutionalism, self-government, individual liberty, and civic virtue will be taught. For a complete view of the project, watch this spectacular fly-through video of the new Library.
A Culture Shift in Parking
The new Library will bring a wealth of practical benefits to the college and its students, and will also serve to enhance the school’s academic reputation. But it will not come without disruptions. The Library itself is already closed and for the coming two years will operate out of the area near the Student Success Center. Books will only be available through Inter-Library Loan. Reference books and periodicals will be available in the room off the hallway near the Student Success Center.
On August 1, the Library Parking Lot on top of the bluff will be closed and all faculty and staff will park south of Ferrell Academic Center or in the Murphy Recreation Center parking lot. Those areas will be designated as faculty/staff parking only and students will not be allowed to park there.
Fencing will block off the construction area. Walkways along the edge of the Campus Drive and along the Path of Mary will be available for access to the Academic Quad. Everyone, but most especially students, will have to be careful crossing the Campus Drive as there will be construction traffic (dump trucks and other work vehicles) moving through the area regularly.
The parking lot on the old practice football field has been completed and has additional entrance and exit ramps. This will be an area where students will park and will be available for faculty and staff as well. Everyone will have to get used to the new model of parking further away from offices and classrooms, which is fairly standard at most other colleges.
With the Library offline for studying, there will be other areas made available. The Dining Hall will remain open from 7:00 – 11:00 p.m. for late-night studying. Ferrell Academic Center will be available with keycard access until 10:00 p.m. The St. John Paul II Student Center will also remain open late for studying. A new computer lab on the third floor of St. Benedict Hall will pick up for the labs that were inside the Library and St. Benedict Hall will also remain open late via card access.
Rocky’s Copies is now located on the corner of 3rd St. and N St., across from Cray Seaberg Hall. This is where they had package pick-up last year at the start of the school year. This is their new permanent location.
The Human Resources Department and Business Office have moved to new offices on the top floor of Cray Seaberg Hall. Their areas are being replaced with new classrooms and faculty offices in St. Benedict Hall.
Later in the semester, the Office of Academic Records and Registration and the Financial Aid Office will also move to Cray Seaberg Hall.
Finally, as we look to the future, everyone is invited to the groundbreaking for the new College Library, set for Saturday, September 23, 2023, at 10:30 a.m.
Go Ravens!
