Ongoing Building and Renovation Projects Promise New Learning Opportunities
The University is in the midst of several major building and renovation projects that, when completed, will provide students not only with new and updated facilities, but also new learning opportunities.
Students in the Occupational Therapy Program will have the opportunity to learn in a fully updated space, including state-of-the-art classrooms and laboratories.
These classrooms and lab space will be located in what was once the Center for Fine Arts and the Boilerhouse. The cost of renovating these facilities was covered through $500,000 in federal funding, which was announced last summer by Pennsylvania 15th District Representative Glenn Thompson.
Thompson, who worked in health care before transitioning to Congress, said he believes the upgrades will better prepare SFU students as they enter health-care professions.
Renovations on the “OT Building” are expected to be completed this upcoming summer.
As renovations continue on the new OT Building, so too does construction on the new center for the fine arts at the University.
The Connors Family Fine Arts Center, which will serve as home to the Resinski Black Box Theatre, is currently in the process of being built. It will be located across from DeGol Fieldhouse.
The initiative to build a new fine arts center originated as a grassroots effort by SFU alumni to build a black box theater named after former University faculty member and long-time theater director Kenny Resinski.
Fundraising efforts for this black box theater proved so successful that the administration decided to build an entirely new fine arts center – complete with a black box theater – named in honor of Resinski and his wife, Bonnie, another longtime faculty member in the Fine Arts at SFU.
“I’m very excited for the new space,” said student Olivia Theisen. “Having our own space to rehearse and perform in will be a nice change of pace.”
Theisen has been a part of SFU theater since the Spring 2021 production of “Seussical.” She is currently the stage manager of “Grease” – which will be performed on campus this spring – and also serves as president of the Tau Delta cast of Alpha Psi Omega, the national theater honor society.
“Students will really benefit from a new, updated space,” said Theisen.
