Administrators plan to renovate the North Building to provide a more permanent home for the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology in the heart of the scientific community.
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs John Harer said he expects the building to become home to more science-based departments, although administrators have not yet developed a time frame for the project. He said the project includes moving the bioinformatics center to the building, which currently houses part of the Office of Information Technology, the Office of Research Support and Air Force and Navy ROTC.
"[We are] creating a laboratory which would focus on data analysis for the genetics department and which would be an educational resource for undergraduate and graduate students interested in the field," Harer said.
To make room for those plans, University officials are considering where to place offices currently housed in the North Building. Harer said that access to offices not critical for students, such as the portions of OIT in the building, will be moved to off-campus locations. Some offices will be more central to campus, and Harer suggested the Bryan Center as one possibility.
Vice Provost for Research Jim Siedow said the bioinformatics center will begin to occupy the North Building sometime this summer, or as soon as a permanent director is found. Renovation plans will be contingent upon the hiring of appropriate faculty to run those facilities, such as the bioinformatics center director.
Judith Dillon, director of the Office of Research Support, which relocated to the North Building from the Allen Building in late 1999, said she had not heard about renovation plans, but that she would like to see improvements in the heating and cooling systems as well as changes to the outward appearance of the building.
Harer said there are no plans to move that office out of the building and that ROTC will also remain there.
Dillon noted that although her office now has more space, the building's location does not make it desirable.
"We were given a lot more space here than we had in the Allen Building," she said. "Walking from here to the Allen Building every time we need something is not convenient."
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