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Regents Hall dedication promises festive atmosphere

By David Gonnerman '90
October 3, 2008

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The 200,000-square-foot Regents Hall was built using the highest standards of sustainable design.
St. Olaf College will dedicate its newest building, Regents Hall of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, during a ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 4. The dedication festivities, part of this year's Homecoming and Family Weekend (Oct. 3-5), will include a variety of events and programs -- from a ribbon-cutting ceremony to a NASA exhibit to a St. Olaf Band performance.

View the online schedule for details about these and other events, all of which are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Some events -- including the dedication ceremony -- will be streamed and archived online.

The dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. by the main entrance to Regents Hall. This will be followed by a picnic lunch (wristbands can be purchased on site) beginning at 11 a.m., and numerous activities and entertainment, including interactive science demonstrations, tours of Regents Hall, presentations about raptors and Zero Emission No Noise cars, turtle races and much more. In addition, NASA's traveling "Vision for Space Exploration Experience" exhibit will be open Thursday through Saturday.

Plenary address
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Regents Hall was designed to make maximum use of daylight while showcasing views of the campus.
The dedication plenary address, "Liberal Education and Science for the 21st Century," will be delivered Saturday, Oct. 4, at 2 p.m. in Boe Chapel by Freeman Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. A nationally recognized advocate for improvements in science and math education, Hrabowski serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Academies, and universities and school systems across the country. He also sits on several corporate and civic boards, including the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

The academic theme for 2008-09 at St. Olaf is "Science and the Liberal Arts." In keeping with the theme, the St. Olaf Band, conducted by Timothy Mahr '78, will complete Saturday's dedication events with the concert, "Celebrating the Sciences," at 7:30 p.m. in Skoglund Center Auditorium. The program will include such works as Mahr's Pride, Promise and Progress and Exotic Particles and the Confinement of Quarks by Don Freund. "It was engaging to come up with a concert program that found an aspect or concept of each scientific discipline at the core of a musical work," Mahr says.

Meanwhile, the exhibit "Science, Art and the Imagination" is on display in Flaten Art Museum while the play "The Aerodynamics of Accident" is being presented in Kelsey Theater.

Science at St. Olaf
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Professor of Chemistry Gary Miessler lectures in the new building.
The 200,000-square-foot Regents Hall will serve the nearly 40 percent of St. Olaf students who pursue a major or concentration in the natural sciences or mathematics. St. Olaf College has long been nationally recognized for its commitment to the sciences. From the extraordinary number of Ph.D. candidates in mathematics and the natural sciences who have received their undergraduate education at St. Olaf, to the college's consistent success at winning national science grants, St. Olaf College is known for its innovative teaching and flagship undergraduate research programs.

President David R. Anderson '74 calls the completion of Regents Hall a transforming event for the college. "Not just because of its impact of the new building on the teaching of science and mathematics, but also because it confirms St. Olaf's forward momentum and inspires us to plan boldly for the college's future," he says.

A sustainable, or "green," building, Regents Hall will have measurably lower operating costs, minimize the impact on the environment and promote whole health for its users. With features such as a green roof, reliance on passive solar lighting and the minimization of chemical and biological waste through the "green chemistry" curriculum, Regents Hall is a model for responsible environmental stewardship. The building was designed and constructed with a goal of obtaining the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification. LEED emphasizes sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.