Roanoke College breaks ground on new state-of-the-art Science Center
ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR)– Roanoke College broke ground on its new Science Center, kicking off a project that will benefit every future Maroon on Saturday, April 20.
Roanoke College’s new Science Center will become the campus’ new state-of-the-art facility for STEM learning and research. The college says construction will be done in multiple phases, starting with the demolition of the circa-1970s Massengill Auditorium. It will be replaced by the new $30 million facility.
“To echo a line from our alma mater, years come and go, but we will always know that dear old Massengill served us well,” Len Pysh, professor of biology said. “Massengill has served as a place for magic, for instruction in courses from history to business, education to health and exercise science, and for inquiry by students conducting research from the cellular level to the cosmos.”
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Future phases will involve major renovations to the neighboring Life Science and Trexler Hall buildings. This project will take Roanoke College’s students into a new era of discovery with high-powered lab rooms, interactive study spaces, collaborative areas, and more technological opportunities for greater accessibility, innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration.
“Every future student, regardless of major will take science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in that facility as part of their educational foundation,” Betty Sue Masters ‘59, a member of the science center advisory board, said. “The laboratories will provide modern educational instrumentation and infrastructure for STEM research to produce graduates who are highly competitive in academia and industry.”
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