University Hall Dazzles Campus Community

Stroll through the narrow basement hallway of Chapin Hall and you'll soon begin to understand why faculty, staff and students in the fast-growing College of Education and Human Services (CEHS) are so excited about their recent move to University Hall, Montclair State University's newest and largest academic building.

President Susan A. Cole called it "a historic moment for Montclair State University, as we officially open the largest and best-equipped academic building ever constructed on our campus. University Hall will provide an instrument for teaching that is second to none."

At 270,000 square feet, the state-of-the-art facility has an open space design, with four floors on one side and seven on the other, surrounding an outdoor courtyard that resembles Moorish gardens of Spain, with benches, tables and chairs to allow for functions, daily study and student-faculty interaction. And though University Hall is the new home of CEHS, it also will be a remarkable resource for the entire campus community.

"On so many campuses across the country, teacher preparation and schools of education are relegated to the worst facilities--the basements--but that certainly isn't the case on this campus," said Dr. Ada Beth Cutler, dean of CEHS. "The fact that CEHS now resides in the iconic and magnificent new University Hall speaks volumes about Montclair State's commitment to building the kinds of community spaces that form the heart of our teaching mission. There's no doubt University Hall will help us do an even better job of preparing new teachers on campus--while also enhancing our ability to help thousands of teachers and students who already are working in classrooms all across the state."

Community spaces in University  Hall encourage students, faculty and staff to interact outside the classroom.

CEHS simply outgrew Chapin Hall, which has served the University well since 1927, first as a dormitory and later as home of the College (see story on page 8). It was in the cramped Chapin Hall basement, after all, that the steadily beating heart of the nation's very first Center of Pedagogy, which has won numerous awards in recent years, was confined to a few cluttered office spaces in which supplies and educational materials were usually stacked to the ceiling. Faculty, staff and students in the Center of Pedagogy's new location now enjoy more than 10 times the amount of floor space they once occupied.

"The huge increase in space at the Center of Pedagogy will provide us with wonderful opportunities to improve various aspects of our program," said Director Jennifer Robinson. "By creating the first university-based Center of Pedagogy in the United States, Montclair State has led the nation in devising highly original and effective teacher-preparation programs, along with many other pedagogical initiatives involving counselors, administrators, exercise and nutrition specialists, and other public education staffers of various kinds. That's a track record we can be proud of, and it's only going to get better now that we have the huge advantage of running our programs in University Hall.

"We're pleased we can expand our reach," said Robinson, "but we're even more excited about the remarkable flexibility of the space we've been given. At the ADP Center, for Teacher Preparation and Learning Technologies, which will provide most of the electronic technology for our programs, we'll be able to mix and match tools--computers, projectors, Palm Pilots, plasma screens--with adaptable community spaces to form endlessly varied teaching and laboratory environments.

At 270,000 square feet, University Hall increases classroom capacity on campus by 40 percent.

Cutler described the ADP Center, funded by the ADP Corporation, as the embodiment of a dream that faculty would have a facility where they could prepare students to become leaders in education technology. But she firmly believes that with all this technology at her fingertips comes greater social responsibility.

"It's important to establish that we do not see technology as an end; it is a means, a tool," said Cutler. "We see technology as a pedagogical tool that helps us deepen, enrich and enhance the process of teaching and learning. But there's a ‘digital divide' in our country, which we're committed to erasing, and to enabling all students to use technology. We don't use technology for technology's sake, but because it helps us to achieve our goals of preparing excellent educators and human service professionals to serve our region."

The dramatic expansion of the Center of Pedagogy is only one of many fascinating innovations University Hall will bring to teacher education. The new building includes four 100-seat lecture halls, one 200-seat lecture hall, 40 general classrooms, 10 specialized learning labs and more than 150 faculty and staff offices.

Several of the College's most visible and nationally renowned programs will operate out of University Hall, including the MSU Network for Educational Renew-al, part of the Center of Pedagogy, which serves 22 local school districts in the state; the Literacy Enrichment Center, which specializes in finding new ways for teaching reading and writing; and the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children, an MSU-established international program aimed at inspiring school children to develop their critical thinking capacities through engagement with philosophical stories and texts.

Capped by a stately 120-foot clock tower, and outfitted with a spacious conference center that looks out on the New York City skyline, the Spanish mission-style building also includes dozens of "flexible" classrooms, which can be linked and expanded depending on usage.

"We also have several community spaces in this building, because classrooms alone aren't enough," said Cutler. "Our students, faculty and staff need to interact as part of a community outside the classroom, and this building provides different types of spaces for that--student lounges, study rooms, conference rooms and comfortable seating areas all over the building so people can feel like this is a home and not a sterile series of empty classrooms."

Given all these features, it is no surprise that University Hall is already drawing rave reviews from its occupants.

"Architecturally, this is an amazing building--and it's going to give us a terrific opportunity to come together as a college," said Dr. Tamara Lucas, interim associate dean of CEHS. "We were scattered across campus in 10 buildings. Now that we're housed in a single, beautiful building, we can go about the business of educating students and teachers, while also doing a much better job on our human services component, in areas such as preparing school counselors. This is a very exciting time to be an education student or teacher at Montclair State."

Assistant Dean Leslie E. Jenkins agrees. "It's already clear that this is an incredible building and opportunity for all of the faculty and students," she said. "What I like most about University Hall is the way the spaces were designed to bring individuals together in a community where people can mix and mingle to their heart's content. This new building is going to allow us to take our programs to the next level."

Elizabeth Gorzelany, a graduate assistant, was also waxing euphoric about January's move to the new building, where more than 5,000 teachers, students and administrators now gather daily.

The Zarn-Cutler Quiet Study Room provides a perfect frame for a glimpse of MSU's past.

"Everyone is excited about this move to University Hall," said Gorzelany. "We've all heard about the amazing new technology that's available throughout this building, and we're eager to begin using that technology to better educate school children everywhere."

Montclair State has, from its inception in 1908, been committed to preparing teachers to teach all children, and according to Cutler, that has always been a part of CEHS's ethic.

"The sense of activism, dynamic growth and constant improvement that has been a hallmark of Dr. Cole's presidency is reflected in her commitment to University Hall," said Cutler. "It's amazing to see the spirit of excitement, growth and improvement she's engendered on campus. Our faculty is top-notch, we have built a premier college and university--and now have the facilities to showcase that excellence. The faculty is anxious to be part of that." 

Experience a new Level of Sophistication at the Conference Center at Montclair State University Set high, atop University Hall, the new Conference Center at Montclair State University is the perfect setting for corporate events, conferences or special events. "My mission is to make the conference center a world-class venue that enhances the educational mission of MSU, while providing an important resource to our local communities," said Phillip J. Cardillo, director of the Conference Center at Montclair State University (pictured). The seventh-floor world-class facility has a spectacular panoramic view of Manhattan, a ballroom with moveable walls that accommodate groups of up to 500 people or more intimate gatherings, a private dining area for groups of 40 or less and a full-service kitchen. The Conference Center's sophisticated meeting rooms offer the latest in communications and audio-visual support. Conference coordinators help with everything from multi-media presentations to large-scale videoconferences. High-speed, wireless Internet service, LCD, video and document projectors, video and/or audio conferencing and SMART Boards are just some the tools the Conference Center provides. "I chose Montclair State because of its exceptional reputation for quality education," said Cardillo, whose background includes university event and conference facility management, budgeting, planning and almost 15 years conference management experience in a university setting. "This is an exciting and dynamic time for MSU. I wanted to be part of not only a new conference and banquet center, but part of the University's centennial and the celebration in 2008."

 

OIT Expands and Improves Services By Jeff Giacobbe '99 M.S. University Hall provides more than 40 percent of all classroom space on campus and is the new home to the  Office of Information Technology (OIT). OIT now occupies approximately 30,000 square feet, two floors in University Hall. The Technology Solutions Center, five fully mediated training/seminar rooms and a 90-seat public computer lab occupy the fifth floor. The sixth floor comprises the Management Information Systems, Systems and Security, Networking and Telecommunications groups, as well as OIT administrative offices. The sixth floor is also home to a new 600-square-foot Data Center, a Network Operations Center and a Telecommunications room. From left: William Gray, systems developer; Jeff Giacobbe, director of Systems, Security, and Networking; and Samuel LaSala, systems developer/directory manager, at work in the Office of Information Technology. The additional space gives OIT the ability to expand and improve the services it offers, including larger and more frequent training sessions, enhanced Help Desk facilities, the largest public computer lab at the University, a resilient and flexible data center, and a fully redundant campus networking and telecommunications infrastructure. OIT also is in a position to explore new service offerings, such as co-location space in the University Hall data center for departmental servers, which are often by necessity located in other buildings in less than ideal power and cooling conditions.

 

ADP Center's Cutting Edge Technology Will Enhance Teacher Education Montclair State has been building perhaps the most advanced and interconnected electronics communications system for university education professors and students in the United States. That system is now in operation in the ADP Center for Teacher Preparation and Learning Technologies located in University Hall. The ADP Center is outfitted with state-of-the-art computer labs, sound-recording studios, video-conferencing rooms and flexible classroom spaces, and these are just some of the powerful digital tools that are already up and running. "The ADP Center will allow our teachers and students to observe classrooms throughout New Jersey in real time," said Gregg Festa, director of the ADP Center. "But this system will do much more than that. Imagine a classroom full of student teachers, and each one has a Palm Pilot. A professor giving a PowerPoint presentation describes a particular teaching problem and then offers several possible solutions. In a flash, the students are voting for the best solution on their Palm Pilots. The infrared technology attached to them automatically creates a graph that shows how they voted, then inserts that graph directly into the professor's presentation. This type of cutting-edge technology is going to enormously enhance teaching." ADP Center Director Gregg Festa with Professor Gwendolyn Barrington-Jackson of Early Childhood, Elementary Education and Literacy Education. Funded by a $2-million grant from the New Jersey-based Automatic Data Processing (ADP) corporation, and housed in the nation's first Center of Pedagogy, the nerve center for MSU's College of Education and Human Services (CEHS), the recently launched ADP Center was designed to connect teachers, students and administrators with each other and with the outside world. "The system we have put together is awesome, in terms of its ability to help all kinds of audiences communicate with each other," said Festa, a former third-grade teacher who has spent the past 10 years working almost exclusively on teacher- education communications devices and the software required to run them. Other exciting tools coming online at the 10,000-square-foot ADP facility include: • three Classrooms of the Future, in which students and teachers link up in a highly complex--and endlessly flexible-- communications system aimed at helping students conduct virtual fieldwork by watching live classroom teaching and then critiquing it with a distant teacher, under a professor's guidance; • an Instructional Technology Design Laboratory where students gain hands-on experience at designing digitally enhanced classroom lessons and curriculum units; • two sound studios where professors and students make recordings and other electronic teaching aids at their own pace; and • a multi-purpose media room, in which student teachers learn to bind booklets, laminate covers and design instructional graphics under the expert guidance of faculty members.