UW students studying STEM fields are going to have to keep waiting for access to better laboratories.
Due to construction delays UW is postponing the opening date of the Enzi STEM Facility to the 2016 spring semester. The building, initially slated for completion in May, will likely not be ready for the fall semester, Matt Kibbon, manager of the project, said.
“The project is enough behind schedule that the time necessary for UW to properly move in isn’t available between now and August,” Kibbon said.
Danny Dale, head of the department of physics and astronomy as well as the chair of the Enzi STEM Facility Ownership and Programmatic Team, said the push back is also safety measure.
“It’s safer to wait and to not have classes while there’s construction. We’re just being cautious.” Dale also said it would be difficult to hold certain labs in the building at the start of the fall semester.
“Some labs, such as chemistry on the third floor, can’t happen. Wet labs such as those require fume hoods, which won’t be ready in time for the fall semester,” Dale said. “Even the dry labs would possibly experience some hiccups.”
Many parts of the facility will be ready in time for the start of fall semester, while the building in its entirety will not be completed until the fall semester is underway. As a result, undergraduate laboratories will continue to take place in existing facilities this fall.
Matthew Britz, a mechanical engineering major at UW, said he would prefer UW move labs into the STEM facility piecemeal as they become available.
“The engineering college has outgrown its current building,” Britz said. “We need more room ASAP.”
Britz said the existing labs are absolutely an impediment to the learning environment he studies in.
“They’re old, small and dingy. I would say get the new facility open as quickly as possible—half, a quarter, I don’t care, get it open,” Britz said.
Connor Thompson, a civil engineering major at UW, said he is interested in waiting to see the building completed.
“I will still get the opportunity for that, though others won’t,” Thompson said.
While he does not feel he is missing out on a semester of using the facility, Thompson said the construction setbacks are discouraging.
“Having constant construction and deadlines continually being pushed back, that’s an annoyance, but I understand if they’re not ready yet,” he said.
The facility will contain undergraduate laboratories in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The building contains 32 laboratories which include teaching labs for introductory courses such as general chemistry, general biology, organic chemistry, elementary physics, mathematics and computational science.
