Monmouth gets a new look

By: Kyle Christensen
Features Editor

Students returning to Monmouth this fall probably could not help but notice so many extreme physical changes in select academic and residence buildings around campus. Part of an extensive series of necessary renovations, these recent alterations began in early summer following commencement and will continue to be touched up during the fall semester.

Perhaps the most noteworthy change is the addition of steps leading up the slope of Wallace Hill. While faculty and students have always humorously addressed the arduous climb on the steep hillside (especially during the ice-slicked wintertime), Perry D. White, vice president for college advancement, knew the issue was more of a serious matter, stating, “The grade of the hill required steps…it was an OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] requirement.”

Sections of outdoor lounging, which White has dubbed as “areas of serendipitous engagement,” are also being constructed beside locales of the hill, to allow passing professors and students opportunities to sit and converse in between classes.

At the now brick-paved divide of Wallace Hall and Poling Hall, the new Fleming Plaza is being created. Named in honor of David and Mary Fleming (a member of the Monmouth Col lege board of trustees/former president of the Mellinger Foundation, and a former professor of physical education, respectively), the Plaza will prominently feature a large seating base being erected behind Wallace Hall on the outlook of the Haldeman-Thiessen science building, with a woven pergola covering and a miniature staircase leading into the grassy knoll.

The official Fleming Plaza dedication ceremony will take place on Oct. 21 at 11:30 a.m., during Homecoming weekend.

After receiving a state grant and a monetary gift from an alumnus, both aimed at making the campus more energy-efficient, the college began reformations in Austin Hall. Aside from repainting the outside façade to give it a more elegant appearance and adding a necessary fire escape to the back, the windows were replaced to make them more resourceful for warming and cooling maintenance. According to White, “Prior to that, those windows were so leaky, we burned up so much fuel trying to heat it, and we couldn’t even get it to heat.”

Winbigler Hall, meanwhile, has received a major overhaul. The male underclassmen residence hall was repainted on the interior, had its bathrooms renovated to include more showers and urinals, placed stronger reinforced doors to each room, and was carpeted throughout its once chiefly tiled corridors. This follows after the equally astounding refurbishing of Fulton Hall in 2005.

“In the budget process, we addressed the need to tend to those halls…to make them truly safer and 21st century dwellings,” indicated White.

Even the reinstated Manor has experienced a revamp, with White confirming, “The donor who bought the house and gave it to the college, paid to have a new roof.” Still, there are many more changes that await the college in the coming semesters, and the campus will continue to develop in its overall aesthetic refinement.

As White remarked, “The new residence hall [to be located in the 300 block of North Sixth Street] has broken ground…we’ll continue from there.”