Hundreds cheered as MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon and her colleagues cut the ribbon at Wells Hall’s East Plaza on Friday, welcoming College of Arts and Letters students and professors to MSU’s new language education hub.
After nearly two years of construction, Wells Hall was opened to the public as a center for many of the university’s language departments.
The building, also housing a three-story atrium, now is filled with College of Arts and Letters language departments.
The departments include Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African; Spanish and Portuguese within Romance and Classical Studies; and the English Language Center.
The need for a revamped Wells Hall resulted from the closing of Morrill Hall , which housed English and history faculty.
In addition to many MSU alumni and faculty, about 100 College of Arts and Letters freshmen attended the opening ceremony.
Arts and Letters freshman Madison Meter and other first-year students attended in brightly colored College of Arts and Letters shirts as part of a “freshman experience” required by their department.
“I’ve only been here for a week, but so far the freshman experience is awesome,” Meter said. “I can’t imagine being happier at any other school. (The College of) Arts and Letters is helping with that.”
Douglas Noverr, a former Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures professor, served on the Wells Hall building committee during the addition’s 2010 planning phase.
He said many locations for the language center were considered, but Wells Hall was the best fit for an addition because of its proximity to the International Center and its physical connectivity of various College of Arts and Letters departments.
“I walked the building and talked to the faculty and students who are working here now,” Noverr said. “They love this place already; it’s fresh, it’s modern, it has the most sophisticated technology for the study of languages.”
MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said some faculty members have yet to fully move in to Wells Hall.
“We have to do a bit of a domino effect of moving faculty from (Old Horticulture) here (to Wells Hall ) and some faculty from Morrill to (Old Horticulture),” Simon said.
Simon said “in a previous State News article”:
http://statenews.com/index.php/article/2010/09/wells_hall_to_receive_upgrades_and_expansion the demolition of Morrill Hall and the construction of Wells Hall was estimated to cost about $38 million.
Associate Professor of Francophone Literature Safoi Babana-Hampton chose to view Morrill’s demolition “as part of the evolution of the university.”
“I can sense there was some sadness in seeing parts of the university’s memory and history disappear, but it’s also an opportunity to look forward and create spaces that are more adapted to new realities — new academic experiences on campus,” Babana-Hampton said.
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