President Stephen C. Ainlay and members of the campus community gathered Friday afternoon to celebrate the $1.3 million in renovations completed in the basement of the Social Sciences building.
The summer project included asbestos removal, an overhaul of the air conditioning and heating systems, the creation of two new electronic classrooms and new furnishings in the rooms.
“A complete renovation is an extremely ambitious project for the 10 short weeks we had to complete it, but we now have a bright and well-ventilated space,” said Loren T. Rucinski, director of Facilities and Planning.
Political Science Professor Byron A. Nichols joined the faculty in 1968, when the building was just four-years-old and housed the only auditorium on campus besides Memorial Chapel.
“It was built for the latest technologies of the 1960s, which was movies,” Nichols explained. “It was used for faculty meetings and large classes and movies were shown there. There was a projector in the back and a pull down screen. But, the acoustics weren’t good and the seating was chairs with the fold-down desks."
For many years, classes and meetings weren’t scheduled in the basement. During the Cold War, the basements of both Social Sciences and Humanities were designated nuclear fallout shelters.
“We never kept bedding in our office,” said Nichols, "but the basement was stocked with enough water to keep us alive for a few days and we had formal training on how to proceed to the basement in the event of a crisis.”
In the late 1980s, the Murray and Ruth Reamer Campus Center was renovated and expanded with the addition of a new auditorium. The F.W. Olin Center, dedicated in 1998, provided additional meeting space with theater-style seating for large group gatherings.
And while some faculty may still shun teaching in the basement of Social Sciences with its lack of sunlight, Nichols actually requests that one of his courses be scheduled there each spring.
“The basement never had windows,” Nichols said, “so I like to teach down there in the spring because there is nothing to distract the students.”