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2010 Graduates
FORMER FRATERNITY BECOMES
NEW HONORS HOUSE
It’s Thursday night at Saint Francis University . . . the unofficial start to the weekend. By 8 p.m., a dozen students already have made their way to the basement of the old Alpha fraternity house. Many more will join them throughout the evening.
The above scenario is expected to be replayed often once the former Alpha house on St. Joseph Street reopens in August.
If you look closely at the students entering the basement confines, you will find them carting laptops and backpacks. There might be festivities of sorts during the evening, but they will be short-lived: Business majors celebrating the completion of their SWOT analyses or PA students taking a break from studying for tomorrow’s anatomy exam.
Welcome to the Bach Family Honors House
Thanks in part to a generous donation from the Thomas Bach Family of Johnstown, the building that once housed the Alpha Phi Delta fraternity was purchased last summer by the University, and has been renovated for academic and residential use by the SFU Honors Program.
The 6,000+ square-foot facility eventually will include a conference room—with state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment—for seminars and Honors core courses; a residence for eight Honors students per year; a 24-hour study space for all Honors students; and meeting, lecture and movie space.
Renovation work began last summer. The 24-hour study lounge, located in what was once the fraternity’s basement, opened for use in January. Other portions of the building will go online when refurbished. Residential occupation will begin in Fall, 2006.
The opening of an Honors House marks the completion of a two-part plan aimed to improve the recruitment and retention of highly motivated students for the University. The impetus behind the plan is community-building. Part One of the plan was launched three years ago when a revised, more cohesive Honors curriculum was approved by the faculty. In order to effect this cohesion, though, space was needed for Honors Program students to meet purposefully and regularly. A 2001 retention evaluation of the University by outside experts suggested an Honors house as the “perfect situation” in which to promote student interaction and community development. The Bach Family Honors House provides for this “perfect situation.”
A committee of Honors students, faculty and alumni, along with the directors of both the Honors Program and Residence Life, met frequently during the past year to plan for the renovation. The student representatives on the committee also authored guidelines for use of the facilities.
”I think that the new Honors House will greatly enhance our Honors Program here at SFU,” says junior Honors student Kathryn Knorr. “This will not only be a place that can entice future Honors students to come to SFU, but it will also be a way to bring alumni back to our school and show them what improvements are continually being made in the name of education and student friendships,” Knorr adds.
Celli-Flynn Brennan of Pittsburgh is the design firm for the renovation project. University Physical Plant personnel are handling the construction.