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NEW UNIVERSITY INITIATIVES
Fall 2005

Early Learning Center

The Early Learning Center, which opened in June 2004, provides exemplary infant, toddler, and preschool care to a diverse population of 162 children, specifically targeting children with risk factors including poverty (40 percent Purchase of Care), foster care (10 percent), and disabilities (20 percent). A model before- and after-school program serves an additional 75 children. The curriculum for all ages emphasizes literacy, science, and mathematics. Additionally, an on-site Pediatric Clinic provides physical, occupational, and speech therapy to children in the community, as well as integrated services to special needs children enrolled in the Center. Parent education and family services programs are open to the public. Technical assistance and training programs for care providers throughout Delaware’s three counties include telephone consultation, mentoring, and training. The Early Learning Center focuses first on providers that primarily serve families in poverty, and those in danger of losing their license or who have difficulty in meeting State standards. Programs for care providers will annually impact in excess of 2,000 children.

Foreign Languages and Literatures Building Renovation

In July 2004, the University began renovating the two former fraternity houses east of Recitation Hall to become the future home for the department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. The estimated $8 million conversion includes a small infill addition to serve as the connecting link between the two facilities, housing an elevator and a centralized entryway for the new facility. Expected to be completed by January 2006, the newly renovated facility will be named Jastak-Burgess Hall and will include space for the department’s administrative offices, its Media Language Laboratory, 60 faculty offices, and approximately 18 part-time faculty spaces. Additionally, the facility will house a large conference room usable to the University community. This project is funded through gifts and University resources.

Performing Arts Center

The $48 million Center for the Arts, currently being constructed off Orchard Road in what was the Amy E. du Pont Music Building parking lot, will provide new performance spaces for music and theatre, plus an indoor practice venue for UD’s Marching Band and smaller practice rooms for music students. The 92,000 gross-square-foot performing arts facility also will encompass a 200-seat recital hall, a 300-seat orchestra rehearsal room and a proscenium theatre that will accommodate 450 persons. Architect for the Center for the Arts, which is expected to open in 2006, is Ayers Saint Gross of Baltimore. This project is funded through generous donations and University resources.

New Residence Hall Complex

The University has completed the first of three new buildings in a new 1,000-bed residence hall complex. These buildings will replace the 12 Pencader dormitories and three commons buildings that housed 750 students between Clayton Hall and Christiana Towers on the University’s Laird Campus. The new buildings, which will replicate the feeling of the central campus, are needed to address several issues associated with the 33-year old Pencader complex. Work on the $72 million project began in spring 2004, with the construction of a 495-bed residence hall, George Read Hall. Two more buildings, Thomas McKean Hall and James Smith Hall, are under construction and will house 250 students each when they open in the fall of 2006. An eight-foot-wide pedestrian footbridge will connect the area to Ray Street. This project is funded through University resources.

Brown Laboratory  

The University is just beginning a major renovation of Brown Laboratory. Brown Lab was constructed in 1937, and houses the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The south wing of Brown Lab was renovated in 1994-95 at a cost of $6.5 million. The north and west wings, however, contain out-of-date laboratory, research, and support space, and require extensive renovation at an estimated cost in excess of $24 million. Given the central role that the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry plays in supporting a number of sectors in Delaware’s economy, modern and functional research facilities are not only an investment in the University, but in the State’s fiscal health as well. This project is funded though University and State resources.

Carvel Education Center

The University is constructing the Carvel Education Center in Georgetown which will provide the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources with an opportunity to add programs and program enhancements. This $7.6 million facility will offer citizens of southern Delaware the opportunity to gather and learn in a first class educational facility. Expected for completion in December 2005, the Center will provide three large meeting rooms with a total seating capacity of approximately 300 and one thirty seat ITV studio with down and uplink capabilities for programs such as the Master Gardener Program, and State and County Extension programs. The Center will also include 34 staff and graduate student offices. This project is funded through gifts, and University and State resources.

Hotel

The Courtyard by Marriott at the University of Delaware, which opened in fall 2004, complements the University’s Clayton Hall Conference Center, providing overnight accommodations for those attending conferences and also offering parents and other visitors the amenities of on-campus lodging. The four-story hotel provides a learning laboratory and research facility for students and faculty in the University’s Department of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management. In addition to 126 rooms, the new hotel houses an indoor pool, exercise room, and restaurant.