With record freshman class, Purdue converts University Church into 6th biggest lecture hall. TSC reopens mask issue
When Purdue President Mitch Daniels told campus in May to expect a freshman class that would crush records, the race was on. One backstory: How the search for lecture halls led to University Church
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As classes closed in for Purdue’s return to an all in-person fall semester – one with a surprise freshman class of more than 10,000 students, or 11% bigger than any in university history – the university had to get creative about where to put all those students, whether in dorms or in lecture halls.
Today’s edition looks at how a search for available space for needed lecture halls led university planners to the sanctuary of the former University Church, across from the Purdue Memorial Union. Last year, it was rented for worship services.
Starting Monday: It’s the sixth biggest lecture hall on the West Lafayette campus.
“The knee-jerk reaction everybody has was, ‘We can’t do this, no way,’” one university official says. “Looking at the space we had available to us, we didn’t really have a Plan B.”
Take a look at the race to transform University Church, how it came down to the wire to get it ready for the fall semester and what other classroom spaces were retrofitted to get ready for record number of students. Hit the Subscribe Now button below.
THIS AND THAT …
TSC MASK DEBATE CONTINUES, COMING MONDAY: Over the weekend, the Tippecanoe School Corp. board called an emergency meeting at 8 a.m. Monday. The lone item on the agenda is the district’s reopening plan. The meeting comes days after the Tippecanoe County Health Department released of school quarantine data Friday that showed TSC rates under a mask-optional policy were eight times higher than those at Lafayette schools, where masks are required in classrooms. The TSC board voted 4-3 Aug. 4 to reject a recommendation from the district’s physician and the county health department and stick with a mask-optional policy, as Lafayette and West Lafayette school shifted to mask mandates as COVID-19 cases rose in Tippecanoe County and across the state. The TSC board also took 65 comments during a public session Aug. 11; the board did not vote on a revised policy that night. (According to a note sent over the weekend, the board does not plan to take public comment Monday morning.) Every time the TSC board has voted on or discussed reopening plans, including past two meetings on masks, members have said they would reconsider parts of the plan as data on pandemic got worse or better. Sounds like that’s where this is. Was Friday’s data enough to swing votes? The meeting will be at the TSC Administration Building, 21 Elston Road in Lafayette. Follow me on Twitter for coverage.
Thanks to sponsor Purdue Convocations, who helped make this edition possible. Convos opens its season Wednesday and Thursday on campus with “Hand to Hand” by Squonk Opera. For details, click the graphic below.
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