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By WENDY STIVER
LOCK HAVEN – The face of Lock Haven University is changing for the better, according to university president Dr. Michael Fiorentino Jr.
He gave the LHU Council of Trustees an overview of building projects last week, and the trustees had the chance to tour the third floor of Ulmer Hall North, which is being renovated into offices for the president and other senior administrators.
It is obvious to visitors that things are changing in the heart of campus. Russell Hall’s absence along North Fairview Street is especially visible. In its place will be the new University Commons, a green space with brick pavilions, wide sidewalks, trees, and next year, a small amphitheatre.
The project also includes a new arch that will span Campus Drive, which runs from the traffic light to Thomas Field House, and will welcome visitors to Lock Haven University.
The first phase of the University Commons project, which is two-thirds of the whole project, is now nearing completion. It includes two pavilions above ground and water line and storm sewer replacement in the ground.
The rainy conditions in June set the schedule back,the trustees heard, but it is only a little behind schedule now. Landscaping has started, and the next step is the planting of new trees.
Lycoming Supply Inc. of Williamsport received the $1.66 million contract to demolish Russell Hall, Gross residence hall on the hill, and the former courthouse annex on Susquehanna Avenue, and to restore the sites afterward. All three buildings are down, and site restoration continues.
Across North Fairview Street from the new University Commons, Ulmer Hall is getting a new entrance. The addition to the front of the building will unite both sections of the hall.
J.C. Orr & Son Inc. of Altoona has the $1.6 million contract for the general construction of the entrance and the renovations to Ulmer’s third floor. PBCI-Allen Mechanical & Electrical of State College has the HVAC and plumbing contracts, totaling about $480,000, and TurnKey Electric Inc. of Williamsport has the $225,300 electrical contract. These four contracts total close to $2.3 million.
Once the renovations are completed to Ulmer North, senior administrators will move their offices there from Sullivan Hall. Moving may begin in early October.
Once Sullivan is vacated, it will be moth-balled, undergo abatement work, and it will be demolished in May or June 2016.
After the demolition, Phase II of the University Commons project will begin, and an amphitheater will be installed where Sullivan now stands.
Ulmer North will offer a few extras that Sullivan does not, including elevator access. It has more square footage and will have enough space to also accommodate the office of the associate provost.
The president’s new office in Ulmer North is spacious and offers a view of the river.
The LHU Trustees toured that floor of Ulmer with Keith Roush, facilities director, and could see where each office will be located. Although the rooms do not look like much at the moment, Roush said things should move quickly now that the project is approaching its end.
Over the summer, the tennis courts were resurfaced and the steps in front of Price Performance Center were redone. Harger Utility Contractors Inc. of Lock Haven did the steps for $82,000 and also worked on other steps near Price for an additional $20,750.
Woolridge Residence Hall is closed for the entire school year for renovations, including work on the bathrooms and the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. It should be open for the 2016-17 academic year.
Next summer, Sloan Fine Arts Center is scheduled for a complete roof replacement, and some minor work will be done inside the center at the same time.
‘A BIG, FAT PIPE’
While building renovations continue, the university is also continually upgrading the technology it uses for instruction, administration, and student support.
The Lock Haven campus has 100 classrooms and they are all “smart” rooms now, equipped with information technology, reported Donald W. Patterson Jr., director of computing and instructional technology. Smartboards and other new I.T. equipment were installed in 20 classrooms per year, over a five-year period, he said. That cycle has continued so classroom technology continues to be upgraded.
This summer, 30 classrooms went from analog to digital/high definition capability, completing the final phase of that move.
The campus also has four large classrooms set up for distance education, reaching LHU students in classrooms located in Clearfield, Coudersport and other places, Patterson said.
The bandwidth traffic management system , which basically manages internet traffic, was upgraded recently to handle the greater amount of bandwidth the campus now deploys.
The university now provides “a robust, reliable environment” for teaching, learning and other activities on the internet, Patterson told the trustees.
The contract with KINBER which manages the Pennsylvania Research and Education Network (PennREN) has reduced the university’s cost and enabled it to provide “a big, fat pipe to the Internet” for the residence halls, he said, so that students always have access to their favorite online games, Netflix and other sites.
A number of years ago, the university’s data center was on the fifth floor of Robinson Learning Center where there was no air-conditioning to speak of, no fire suppression system designed with computers in mind, and “lots of single points of failure,” Patterson said. All of those problems have been addressed, he said.
New storage arrays have been installed, with two of each so there is always back-up. And a second data center has been established on East Campus.
The campus’s first fiber network was laid in the early 1990s, Patterson said, and it was all replaced a few years ago.
Security is now an emphasis, he said, to prevent hacking.
The student support systems available online include My Haven, a student and faculty portal for scheduling classes, grading, and faculty advising. A student help desk can answer questions about laptops, ipads, phones and other devices and even offers hardware services.
One of the administrative support services is a student information system that issues an early “alert” when a new student seems to be having trouble with course work.
And through another service, prospective students may now file just one application and it can be shared with all 14 state universities in Pennsylvania.