Students in the College of Social Work will no longer be traveling between seven different buildings for their classes. In fall 2015, the college will move into its newly renovated home in Hamilton College.
The College of Social Work is currently spread out across campus, reaching from Jones to off-campus on Lady Street, with its main offices in DeSaussure.
“The move, for us, is huge. We’re currently scattered all over campus,” said Anna Scheyett, dean of the College of Social Work. “This is a chance for us to be united as a community for the first time in years and years and years.”
Scheyett has been hoping the move would become a reality since she took the position, and she envisions it as an “academic home” in which students and faculty “bump into each other and have those spontaneous conversations.”
“I think it’ll be positive change. I’m expecting that the faculty [will be] able to collaborate more and those students will have closer relationships with faculty because they’ll be seeing each other more,” Scheyett said. “I think that having a home will give us a stronger identity.”
According to university spokesperson Wes Hickman, the consolidation of the college has been in the university plan since 2010, and the renovation is on schedule and under budget.
"The most important thing is that this will consolidate the College of Social Work into one physical place," Hickman said. "I think that that’s an important thing for the dean and for their faculty and encourages that type of interactive learning environment where students and faculty are able to come together and interact in a shared space."
The undergraduate major in social work was created in the school year 2009-2010, and it started with just nine students. In its first three years, it expanded to approximately 200 students.
The College of Social Work now has almost 800 students, including more than 625 masters students and 25 doctoral students.
Scheyett attributed this growth to the nature of the work and the noticeable involvement of undergraduate faculty members on campus.
“In a tight economy, it’s actually a degree that’s a professional degree,” Scheyett said. “You can get a job with it.”
Scheyett hopes that this new building will carry the college through its next steps toward expansion.
“It’s a really good time for the college to be in a new home because it’s in a really generative phase right now,” Scheyett said. “We have a large number of students, hired some new faculty [and] started some new research.”
Although Scheyett is looking forward to the future of the college, she does anticipate some growing pains, saying “even good change is stressful.”
But the dean does believe it will be worth it in the end.
“I’m most excited about the thought of having a place that we can all be together,” Scheyett said. “We’ll have a home, someplace we can invite alumni back to. And it’s a place. That’s going to be the best part.”
The “place” the College of Social Work is making its permanent home, Hamilton College, was originally built in 1942 as a training space for the U.S. Navy. The college will move into the former Naval ROTC Armory gymnasium, which will receive a complete overhaul.
The end product will feature a two-story space that includes a computer lab, five classrooms, four conference rooms, offices and a student lounge.
According to Hickman, the College of Social Work moving into one wing of Hamilton College will "optimize the existing space."
"Here we had a building that was in great need of deferred maintenance ... This project really gives us the opportunity to maximize that space," Hickman said. "It’s a great building and bringing it back to its fullest use is a great project."