Texarkana College has some major changes coming to their campus in the next few years, starting with its newly renovated Biology Lab Building and their Chemistry Building. A first of many projects to come, the new Biology Lab and Chemistry Building are designed with the future of Texarkana College students in mind.
“The staff and I were able to work with the architects on these projects from the ground up the last three years. We were able to add our input, and express our own needs for the classrooms, and they really listened to our needs. It was such an honor for us to be able to work with the team and put our own little touches to our classrooms. We are definitely excited for our students to come back onto the campus and see the new changes that have been made to our campus,” said Dean of STEM Dr. Cat Howard.
Students will be able to experience the freshness of the newly renovated Chemistry and Biology buildings the moment they walk through the doors. Each classroom is equipped with the newest technology available, allowing professors to meet the needs of all students in person, and online. “Texarkana College is working to provide seamless online classes to those that cannot come onto the campus, and with the new technology behind our classroom designs we can really do that for our community of online students,” said Suzi Irwin, Director of Institutional Advancement & Public Relations. “Our goal is to meet students coming into the College where they are, and to encourage those coming to us who haven’t been in school for many years, with an opportunity to be supported with the newest technology. We also have a lot of opportunities for advancement through our many scholarship programs available to them,” said Irwin.
The Biology Lab and Biology Classroom Buildings are still under construction. By the end of May 2022, the two separate buildings which sit next to each other on the campus, will be connected through a large glass atrium, allowing for one seamless Biology Building. Throughout the halls of the new construction are themed colors and schemes that adorn the walls and classrooms. Traci Pitman from For All BrandKind helped bring the images alive in the new construction of the buildings by placing images throughout the hallways, and integrating the color scheme of each new building into the art. The Biology building adorns themes of greens and browns, and has a large art focal piece in the student lounge. The Chemistry building has an entirely different color theme with blues, oranges and yellows.
“One of the best things about the new construction is that we have personalized the learning to our students. The previous Chemistry building always had a smell of the chemicals that we sometimes use in our labs. Now, we have an entirely different section of the building dedicated to our chemicals with an air source that keeps those chemical smells away from the building. We toured several campuses around the state of Texas to determine what we wanted in our labs and classrooms, and used the ideas from other campuses when we were designing our labs. Our classrooms are completely different from what the students were used to before, and we are so eager to show them how much we have thought about them in the design and construction of these new buildings” said Dr. Howard.
Classes will begin for the College this Wednesday, August 18th, and professors are working diligently to put their classrooms and labs together before students arrive. “We had to move everything out of the Chemistry building last year while they were doing the renovations and we were all just living out of boxes. This year we have only had a week to move everything back and get it all set up before students arrive next week. We are working hard, and we are all really excited to show our students just how much they are appreciated with the new construction and the attention to their needs that we included in our new classrooms,” said Dr. Howard.
