Integrated Sciences Building Visit

Our recent tour of the Integrated Sciences Building with Steve Ball was incredibly informative.  Steve took us through all the inner-workings of the building (including the lower level, penthouse, and all the cool places that required special access)!  We're appreciative of Steve's willingness to share so much during our two hour tour.

First, I realized how much larger the facility was than I expected!  According to the Facilities Planning website, the current building has 155,000 gross square feet.  There were tons of labs ranging from inorganic, organic and physical chemistry, to animal sciences, and biology.  We were able to see the new well planned lab setups and equipment.  We learned that four different courses can be taught simultaneously in the labs, with 10 labs, 16 students per lab and one "hood" per person, specifically for inorganic chemistry.   We walked by one lab that had over a million dollars worth of equipment, provided through a generous donation from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (it was under lock and key of course).  We were also able to see experiments taking place on the top level with doctoral and master's level students.

In relation to classroom space, everything is state of the art.  There is a 300 seat and 85 seat lecture hall along with many smaller classrooms.  When relevant, there are hoods with a video camera enclosed, allowing for professors to perform experiments in the lecture and show their work to the students.

The green initiative was incorporated in the building's construction as much as possible.  There are no light switches in any rooms, everything is motion sensor operated.  As you can see in the lecture hall photo, the building utilizes bamboo and recycled materials for surfaces.  Natural light streams through as much of the building as wherever possible.  Steam, provided by the University's Central Heating Plant is used to heat and cool the facility.  LEED, the Leadership in Energy Efficient Design helped to approve the facility's "green factor."

I'm excited to share, that the current Integrated Sciences Building is just the beginning!  A new addition is already being constructed, and will likely be finished in the next couple of years.  This new addition will include a new lab science building and new life science facility.

A huge thanks to Steve Ball for our tour!  The Integrated Sciences Building is a fantastic addition to the University!

Hillel House Visit

A handful of the summer guides, along with two Assistant Directors of Admission recently returned from their visit of the UMass Amherst Grinspoon Hillel House.  Our guide was Michelle Davidson-Schapiro, an enthusiastic and informative member of the Hillel Staff.

Our beginning point of the tour included an overview of Jewish Life on campus along with the offerings available through the Hillel House.  The Jewish population on campus is usually comprised of around 3,000 individuals.  Any given week during the academic year, around two or three hundred students will take advantage of services or events hosted by the Hillel.

In addition to Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox services offered on Fridays and Saturdays, the Hillel hosts a wide array of events throughout the year.  Check out their bulletin board that advertises all of the events from 2009-2010!  There are over 25 Jewish Student Groups on campus that help to plan, host, or participate in the varied events offered.  A telling accolade related to the large amount of offerings is something referred to as the Haber Award.  This award is decided based on outstanding programming and UMass is the only campus Hillel anywhere to receive this award six times!

We also learned about the trip to Israel that's free for Jewish students called the Birthright Israel Trip.  There are multiple trips held throughout the year, mainly in December and during the summer.  Each year, a couple hundred UMass students will participate in the trip, which lasts for 10 days.

In addition to hosted events, there is an academic component connected to the Hillel House.  Each semester, a sampling of one-credit courses is taught by the staff of the Hillel.  Ranging from, Jewish Art Making to Everyday Hebrew the courses are a great opportunity for students to learn more about their culture.

I mentioned in my previous post, a residential component available at the Hillel House.  We learned that 26 individuals can live on the top floor of the Hillel House.  There is a kitchen available for residents (in addition to the Kosher meat prep kitchen on the lower level of the facility), along with a laundry room and lounge.  The rooms are quite nice!  We were able to sneak a peak of one of the rooms that was being cleaned.

We learned a great deal about Jewish life on campus and the UMass Hillel House this morning.  A big THANK YOU to Michelle our tour guide!

Integrated Sciences Building

I'm happy to share that another tour has been scheduled for next week!  We'll be visiting the new Integrated Sciences Building on Monday, May 24th @ 9:10.  Stephen Ball, the facilities manager of the College of Natural Sciences will be bringing us around the building.

The College of Natural Sciences incorporates the life, environmental, computational, and physical sciences along with math on campus.  This area of the University, also helps to uphold the Land Grant Mission for UMass, the state, and the country.  The College of Natural Sciences is home to around 6,000 Undergraduate students at UMass Amherst and is the largest recipient of grant funding on campus.

The Integrated Sciences Building is one of the physical buildings on campus used by the College of Natural Sciences.  This facility was recently completed and now holds: all undergraduate teaching labs, life science labs, research lab space, a computer resource center, a 300 seat auditorium along with faculty and staff office space.

I look forward to having the opportunity to take and post pictures of this facility to share!  I will also be sharing information regarding the planned expansion of the Integrated Sciences Building and what it will hold.

The Hillel House

Good news! I heard back from the Hillel House regarding a tour of their facility! We have a tour scheduled for Tuesday, May 25 @ 10:00. I'm going to use this post to share the information I already know about the Hillel House and Jewish life on campus so I can add to my current knowledge through the tour.

First, while serving as a location for hosted events and religious services it is also a residential option for students. Students can reside on the second floor of the facility. Students can live in the Hillel House for an entire semester during the academic year, and for a window of time during the summer months.

Also, did you know that there's a Kosher Kitchen in the Hillel House? It serves dinners Friday nights and Shabbat lunches. Connected to this option, there is a Kosher meal plan through Franklin Dining Commons.

I'm aware of study abroad offerings through the UMass Hillel, but I don't know much about the logistics.

My goal for this tour is to learn more about the residential option, services that are provided through the Hillel, and study abroad options. Be on the lookout for updated info after our tour on Tuesday!

An Introduction

Why hello! The summer schedule has just started at the Robsham Memorial Center for Visitors at UMass Amherst. There will be quite a few summer-long projects that the student workers will be focusing on. Some of these projects include: assisting with the implementation of our online tour registration page (yipee), revamping our "did you know" board, finalizing the Registered Student Organization binders for the lobby, creating a restaurant listing for guests, and updating the model room.

In addition to these projects, I've identified my own project, which is the main focus of this blog. I realized, to my chagrin, the limited number of buildings I have familiarity with on Campus. After working for the University for multiple years, I'm sad to say my knowledge of the buildings on campus and what they have to offer is pretty slim. As a result, I will be attempting to take a field trip to all of the buildings on campus I don't know as much about and will be reporting my findings (and photos) on this blog.