Science Department Moves Out of Science Hall

A chemistry lab in the Science Hall has been emptied in preparation to move into the Dunklau Center for Science, Math and Business. Photo courtesy of the Dunklau Center’s Facebook page.

By Paige Uzzell

While the Sower hosted the Golden Leaf Awards and the Student Activities Council partied for Spring Weekend, Concordia’s science department took the first steps into moving out of the Science Hall, and into the Dunklau Center for Science, Math and Business.

The department had a move-out party Saturday, April 13 for all the science majors to attend. Students began working at noon packing boxes and taking them into the P.E. Building’s visitor locker room. Other items were locked in the Crime Scene House and Walz.

On Sunday, April 14, the plants and animals began making their way into Thom Leadership Education Center. The plants, originally from the greenhouse, line the hallways next to windows. The animals are all locked up in a room in Thom for their safety.

Plants from the Science Hall have been moved into THOM’s “Mainstreet” area, soaking up the sun. Photo courtesy of Madison Pitsch.

“It’s been pretty crazy helping move everything out of the old building,” junior Alison Coomer said. “This is due to the science department, as a whole, having a lot of awesome stuff, and also fragile stuff. Glassware has to be wrapped individually, microscopes have to be driven over, and everything has to be packed inside of boxes and brought over to the P.E. building without being destroyed.”

Moving out of the Science Hall has required a lot of work, but that work has not stopped the students from being excited for the change.

“This new building was something Concordia has needed for a long time now, so I am excited to see the science department get what they are deserving in order to care for all of its needs, and to allow for more growth in the science field,” Coomer said.

The science faculty members are also excited for the much-needed opening of Dunklau.

“We’re busting at the seams in our current building,” Assistant Professor of Biology Jennifer Fruend said. “Natural Sciences sees almost every student on campus at least once, and biology is the largest major on campus. We squeeze into our existing facility by literally storing research projects in our desks in our offices sometimes, and frankly, our classrooms are uncomfortable.

The Science Hall may have been busting at the seams, but it was full of unique, strange, and very old items.

“The old specimens ( include) the insect from 1896, plants from the 1900-ish, jars with a lot of reptiles, drawers jammed full of cigarette boxes containing plant materials, a cobra in a pickle jar, and a one-headed-two-bodied-eight-legged piglet in a pickle jar,” Fruend said.

The moveout has kicked students out of the science building prior to dead and finals week.

“Since we have to be out of the building by Easter weekend, most of my classes and all of my labs will be done on this week, which means finals and deadlines for papers and projects have been moved up,” Coomer said.

Professors will be able to begin moving into Dunklau in July, and the building will be open for classes by fall of 2019.

“There are a lot of decisions being made, big and small, so my brain gets tired at the end of the day,” Fruend said. “But this is getting to the end of several years of decision making. It is weird saying goodbye, and realizing that this is for real.”