After 22 years of calling the dungeon-like basement of Mabee Fine Arts Center home, the mass communications department is moving to Lile Hall.
“We have over 100 mass communications majors, and a number of speech majors as well. We just need more space,” said Dr. Jeff Root, dean of the School of Humanities. “It also would provide for a way to enhance our TV studio and the newsroom for our publications, and we will have new and better classrooms.”
The Lile Hall move has been planned for six years, but a number of factors worked together to make this semester the one to renovate the area.
“We had been raising money for a period of time, and we got to a place where we felt like we had enough money to make a real difference – build a new TV studio and newsroom for our publications,” Root said. “Those areas will be larger than we’ve had in the past.”
Currently, the communications department’s publications (yearbook, newspaper, photo lab and video) all have different offices in Mabee Fine Arts Center. In their new setup, all but video will share a large newsroom in the current location of Evans Banquet Room B, while Banquet Room A will become the new TV studio. A hallway between the two will connect Lile Hall with the student center.
The TV studio will be much bigger, have a higher ceiling and be away from the spontaneous music that can often be heard in their current location because of the music department upstairs. And, they finally have the opportunity to switch their cameras to a format they have been trying to switch to for a number of years.
“Everything will be High Definition now; everything will be digital,” said Dr. Dave Ozmun, professor of communications and video adviser. “We’ve been kind of hybrid over the last couple of years. It’s expensive to completely change everything, but this gives us the chance to do that.”
The first wave of construction is planned for next week, when they will mainly be working on the TV studio. The renovations will continue through this semester and during the summer.
“The spring semester is a better time to try to do the work,” said Dr. Brett Powell, vice president for administrative services. “There’s a little bit less activity, and we have the summer where there’s not as much going on. We’ll start during Spring Break and try to stay out of the students’ way as much as possible.”
The upgrades will benefit the English, modern foreign languages and history majors as well. Among the other anticipated improvements to Lile Hall are fixing the air conditioning, repainting walls, replacing flooring and putting new technology in classrooms.
“One of the issues that we have is Hickingbotham Hall is so nice and Lile Hall is 40 years old and out of date,” Powell said. “We want to have a better transition from Hickingbotham so it doesn’t look like you’re going from new to old.”
While all classrooms are getting new technology, one will have more improvements so it can become a collaborative classroom where it will be easier for students to do group projects.
“We’ll do projects in that room and group oriented work,” Root said. “Part of the technology there is that every group gets its own screen and laptop, so you can work independently as groups, but then we’ll have the ability to switch so that your work can be seen on all of the screens.”
While graduating seniors will not get to take advantage of the new technology and Lile Hall improvements, many are happy others will get the chance.
“My favorite part is the idea that in a year, after I have graduated, I’ll be able to come back and see how the mass communications department has grown and is teaching new students even more in a new environment,” said Nate Peace, the video production associate producer.
