“We just came back from the Honors College convocation and this man was talking about fifth dimensions,” Salman said. “I was like, ‘Whoa, I didn’t sign up for physics.’”
For much of the day Tuesday, incoming MSU freshmen were required to attend their college’s colloquium and welcome ceremonies to get a feel for university life and a chance to settle into the East Lansing area.

But freshmen might not be the only ones finding something new. At MSU, change has become the norm for many and this semester is no different.

With renovations at Hubbard Hall, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum and changes to the Capital Area Transportation Authority, or CATA, bus routes, the university will continue to transform with the future in mind, university engineer Bob Nestle said.

“It’s a shifting of the university’s needs and priorities,” Nestle said. “There is a lot going on and within the next few months. Students are going to see quite a few changes.”
Whether it is learning a new subject or wondering what building was recently constructed, students might be feeling a sense of discovery when returning to campus — or being welcomed for the first time.

Living on

Some of MSU’s newest Spartans will be the first to experience one of the university’s most significant changes to on-campus life.

MSU officials believe the Neighborhood Concept pilot program, which begins in Hubbard Hall this semester, will cater to students directly within the numerous residential complexes. The program aims to condense major MSU services — such as Olin Health Center’s personal care or the MSU Writing Center’s tutoring — and focus them where students live, said Philip Strong, assistant dean for Lyman Briggs College and leader of the program.

The goal is to make the transition from high school to college smoother for freshmen. Some freshmen living in Hubbard Hall got a glimpse of the Neighborhood Concept when Strong gave an overview of it during move in. The students also toured the program’s engagement center, which will contain study and entertainment spaces within the residence hall.

“(Parents) were nodding and smiling and saying ‘I wish I had this opportunity when I was in school,’” Strong said.

Next year, Strong said, the Brody, South and Red Cedar neighborhoods will launch the program.

Vennie Gore, the assistant vice president of Residential and Hospitality Services, said although last year’s First Year Experience in Holden Hall folded into the Neighborhood Concept, a second year student success program has begun for the upcoming school year.

“There is a second year experience that is focusing on second year success — that’s just getting off the ground,” Gore said. “It’s a pilot, (and we hope) it informs us for the Neighborhood Concept as we would like to service (upperclassmen) in the future.”

Work in progress

Renovation and development at MSU’s newest cafeteria, Brody Square, and at academic and athletic venues will be key to the notion of change.

At Wells Hall — MSU’s largest academic building — students will begin to notice an increased construction presence for an addition to the building beginning next week. It is expected to be substantially completed by May 2012 at a cost of about $37 million.

“All the lecture halls in the B-wing will be closed for the academic year,” Nestle said.

“Those have been reassigned to others across campus. The lecture halls themselves will not be changing much, but we’ll be lifting steel — you cannot lift steel over an occupied area of the building.”

At Brody Hall, the $49 million, second floor cafeteria is mostly complete. Next fall, its first floor classrooms will be open to students.

In addition, students will notice continued progress in construction of the $40 million Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum on East Circle Drive, with the road expected to open to traffic next fall.

“It’s a very tight construction site,” Nestle said. “The foundation is in and most of the building is poured concrete. That’s getting underway now so that’s on schedule.”

On the west side of campus, construction on the university’s softball fields at Old College Field is on track as well, with an added press box and grandstands. The project has a slated date of completion by December 2010 at a cost of about $2 million, Nestle said.

Getting around

Despite minor inconveniences from ongoing construction, officials have tried to make it easier for students to get around campus. Students might notice a few changes as they travel from point A to point B.

Several detours on CATA routes were mostly dictated by the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum and the corresponding detour on East Circle Drive, said Jeff Kacos, director of the Office of Campus Planning and Administration.

“(Route 33/Campus Cruiser) is on a detour route,” Kacos said. “That route will go east on Auditorium Road and up Dormitory Road and then make a U-turn and loop around that island — it will still pick up students from Snyder, Phillips, Mason and Abbot halls.”

Routes 31, 35 and 36 also received changes. Maps can be found at CATA’s Web site at CATA.org.

For those wanting to beat the crowds, Timothy Potter, manager of MSU Bike Service Center, said the store has teamed up with Fuji University — a program that provides new, reduced cost bicycles to students, faculty and staff — for their fourth year.

“The program helps with the mission of being more environmentally conscious and to get people away from driving cars and walking from one side of the campus to another,” Potter said. “We’ve been getting really slammed over the last few days, selling and renting everything that we can put on the floor.”