InsideOSU
The New Home of Agriculture
TRANSCRIPT
Dr. Jayson Lusk, Vice President and Dean of DASNR: of Here in agriculture, we're all about innovating to nourish the world. This facility, building, labs and teaching space really help support that mission and vision. This space was designed for collaboration. Certainly in our old building, we didn't have the kinds of seating you see around us where students could get together and study, or if you have a break between classes, you could just hang out before your next class. In fact, one of the questions we've really been wondering is where all these students were before we moved into this building. They weren't in the old Ag Hall; they went somewhere else. Now they're hanging out here, which is great for us because it creates more of those accidental interactions between faculty and students, and between student and student.
Presley Pullen, Junior: It's very important. In the old building, we didn't really have a whole lot of space for that. There weren't any huddle rooms. Now, in this building, there are huddle rooms on every single floor, and those are just small rooms with TVs where students can go and study. Last night, I was actually here until 1:30 a.m. I had a really big test this morning, and it was just an awesome space to meet with some of my classmates and take advantage of the technology in those rooms.
Adam Hildebrandt: The new space isn't just more conducive to collaboration; the layout and technology upgrades make the entire learning environment more accessible.
Dr. Brian Arnall, Professor of Plant and Soil Sciences: The classroom space is amazing compared to what we used to have in A Hall and the teaching rooms. This new space has all the technology, so I've got many students from around Oklahoma and the U.S. who are able to livestream in.
Dr. Lusk: Across the space here. This is an example of a classroom. Of course, the other thing that makes this unique is the fact that we can see them, and they can see us, so it's very different than our old-style classrooms. I think they've gotten a little bit used to it. You can see they're ignoring us now. The first few weeks of class, there was always a lot of back and forth there.
Dr. Arnall: One of the favorite things about this is the laboratories — how we have so much in one area. Our new Soils Lab has a freezer, a cold room and a growth chamber. A year ago, we had a freezer unit out of the agronomy farm, so my students would have to leave campus, go to the agronomy farm, set out soils work there for an hour, and come back to class. Now they can come right into the lab, pull the samples out of the freezer in between classes and get a lot of work done. The efficiencies — what we can do — is so much better. That means I can bring more students in, and more undergraduates have that experience of the laboratory.
Adam Hildebrandt: In addition to classroom and lab resources, there's also space for students to build community and even prepare for the professional world.
Presley Pullen: The Student Success Center is a pretty special place. In the old building, we called it the "fish bowl" because of the glass windows, but here, we get to call it the "fish tank". They can take advantage of the computer resources where they can print off their résumés on special résumé paper. But it's also more than that: It's a place for the Ferguson family to really come together outside of the classroom.
Adam Hildebrandt: We're standing here in front of the Dairy Bar. This is kind of the newer rendition of the Dairy Bar. Why was it important to bring that back and kind of bring life back to that?
Dr. Lusk: When you talk to our alumni, a lot of them really have fond memories of the Old Dairy Bar that existed just down the road from us. The students got together, collaborated, exchanged stories, and played cards and dominoes. That's something we're hoping we can carry over to the new building: that same sense of connection, networking and the ability for people to relate and connect to each other in a more modern environment.