The Aquinas 1955-01-13

              THE NEW LOOK-Architect's drawing of the proposed University of Scranton campus. The first
building to be constructed is the science building" A; others include: library, B; faculty residence, C;
classroom building, D; aUditorium, E; administration building, F; chapel, G; student donnitory, H;
cafeteria, I; gymnasium, J.
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is taken over
The campaign, scheduled to
open in March, will unite student
body, alumni and business, industrial
and civic leaders of the region
to provide the University
with a new science building, library
and faculty house.
Mr. Lynett is being assisted by
Judge Michael J. Eagen, John A.
Noble and Ellis Oppenheim as cochairmen.
An advance gifts committee,
headed by John B. McDade, general
manager of the Heidelberg
Coal Company, assisted by John
F. Murphy, vice-president of the
First National Bank of Scranton,
reading rooms, faculty library,
and thirty-nine rooms for living
quarters.
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
The University of Scranton's
development program is spearheaded
by a planning board made
up of twenty-two business, professional
and civic leaders of the
community. Chairman of the
board is Edward J. Lynett, publisher
of the Scranton Times.
Plans have been completed for
the $1,500,000 Community-University
Campaign to build the three
urgently needed buildings for the
University.
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JESmT8-New flWulty residence to be constructed when Estate
by the library and other flWillties.
HERE LIVE THE
ity of these men are now housed
on the Scranton Estate, but for
years some of them have been
living at LaSalle Hall on Wyoming
Avenue. This year quarters
became so cramped due to the increased
number of faculty members
that it was necessary to create
facilities in one of the wood
structures on Platt Place. Named
St. Robert's Hall, the building had
formerly been used for departmental
offices and also as the office
for the yearbook and the
Aquinas.
The new building will contain a
faculty chapel, community room,
Estate. At a cost of $966,500 the
structure will soar to the heights
of beauty and function.
Teaching and techni.cal facilities
will be gathered from five buildings
scattered throughout the University
and housed in this one
complete unit. The spacious environs
of Scranton's scientific
wonderland will offer the longsought
opportunity for graduate
study and research in engineering,
physics, biology and chemistry, as
well as the usual undergraduate
program.
The ground floor will house a
complete engineering department
that will (10 away with the
necessity of engineering stu(
lents going elsewhere for the
final two years of their e(luca-tion.
The physics department is
slated to take over the first floor
of their new home. This will be
a welcome change from the barracks
building that stands now as
an open invitation to the possibility
of a fire.
From cramped quarters on the
second and third floors of the
Main Building pre-med and biology
majors will at last join their
brothers on the uptown campus
when they begin operations on the
second floor of the new site. Close
to $200,000 will be spent on facilities
for the biology department
alone.
The chemistry department, long
contained in a building that was
formerly a livery stable, is scheduled
to keep house on the third
floor. The fourth floor will hold a
$30,000 engineering drafting room
and a new transmitter room and
studios for the University's radio
station, WUSV, which is scheduled
to raise its wattage considerably
when the change is made.
PARADISE FOR BOOKWORMS
The second of the primary targets
for expansion is the $220,000
renovation and addition to the
present faculty residence, the old
Scranton home. A real University
tradition, the interior of the
beautiful mansion will be preserved
to become the heart of the
University as it is turned into
ideal space for student lounges,
eight seminar rooms, departmental
offices and reading rooms. The
addition will contain the library
proper to make room for the collection
of 41,907 volumes and
periodicals that are now scattered
on several floors of the
Main Building. Besides the lack
of space for books, reading and
seminar rooms, the present facilities,
a former gymnasium, are unsatisfactory
because they are situated
too far from the majority
of the student' body on the hill
campus.
JESUIT HOME SWEET HOl\'1E
The third of the immediate
needs is a $320,000 home for the
Jesuit faculty, which will be necessary
when present quarters are
turned into a library. The major-
LIBRARY AND HOME
FOR FACULTY NEXT
ON BUILDING PLAN
10 ." By BILL KEISLING nI
~ ..E In the office of the registrar a
t- brisk winter breeze slips past an
"l unguarded casement, rustling pa.
l5lJ' pel'S and sending little shocks ::s through the floor-length draperies
"( as it goes. A page is lifted from
a desk calendar, and as it floats
to the floor in shaky little movements
a darting beam of sunlight
picks it up and hangs on like a
theatrical spotlight. The dateJanuary
13, 1965.
Outside the sun suddenly skips
behind a bank of creped clouds
and when it emerges minutes later
it is to bask ten modern buildings,
known far and wide as the campus
of the University of Scranton,
in the brilliance of its light.
The above account is admittedly
a bit on the poetic side, but who
can blame a "faithful son of
Scranton" for getting a bit poetical
at the thought of a cherished
dream in 3-D, cinemascope and
royalaphonic sound?
For after years of rumors and
stray bits of information disseminated
by unscrupulous heartbreakers,
even the most calloused
cynics among us seem ready to
admit that this is the real thing.
A dream is about to come true.
TOMORROW'S UNIVERSITY
Plans for the University of tomorrow
were first released to the
local press last summer. It was
announced that close to five million
dollars would eventually be
spent to literally reconstruct the
school. The prince of education
was at last to cast off the accoutrements
of a pauper and
dress himself in the rich fabric of
ten new buildings to be centered
about the site of the present
Scranton Estate.
The plan will eventually provide
the University with a new science
and engineering building, a new
classroom structure, a new administration
building, a lecture and
assembly hall, a library, a new
faculty residence, a chapel, a
cafeteria, a student dormitory
and a gymnasium. The campus
will be -located from Linden
Street, at the site of the present
temporary "barracks" buildings,
to Madison Avenue and extending
to the school property on Platt
Place.
The first objective of the building
program is the construction,
at the cost of $1,506,500, of the
three most urgently needed buildings-
the science building, library
and faculty residence.
SCIENCE WONDERLAND
The first maneuver of operation
"campus" will start in a few
months with groundbreaking ceremonies
for the five-story ultramodern
science and engineering
building that is to be built near
the Monroe Avenue wall of the
mittee members to contact every
element of the region will be announced
in the near future.
"This program will reveal the
close partnership between the
community and the University,"
Mr. Lynett said. "We are certain
that the community and the University
will work together to
build a greater University of
Scranton for a greater community
of Scranton."
Pointing out that the people of
the Scranton area have banded
together in the past to raise funds
to build fifty plants for industrial
(Continued on Page 5)
has been organized and is ready
to swing into action prior to the
official opening of the campaign.
Frank J. O'Hara, registrar of
the University, chairman of the
Alumni Division of the campaign,
is busy organizing committees in
every community in the region as
well as in cities and towns
throughout the country where
University graduates reside.
Mr. Lynett, encouraged by the
immediate and enthusiastic response
of. regional business, industrial
and civic leaders to the University's
development program,
said that the chairman and com-
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WONDERLAND OF SCIENCE-The $966,000 science building that will be the first of ten new
structures to adorn the Scranton campus.