Construction on a $11.4 million addition to the UND School of Law was completed in time for the fall semester. Photo by Nick Nelson/ the Dakota Student

UND continues to renovate facilities

Last year, UND broke ground on large construction projects across campus which include: The Wilkerson Commons, an addition to the law school, a brand new building to house the School of Medicine an Health Sciences, the Athletics High Performance Center, and Robin Hall, a new classroom and research building for the Aerospace program.

The focus of the construction was to create better facilities for students to use.

“The main driver for all of this was to get a better environment for our students to learn,” UND President Robert Kelley said.

“You think about student recruitment in a lot of different ways, but we are recruiting all of our students. We are working to convince them to come to the University of North Dakota.”

The Wilkerson Commons is scheduled to open on Oct. 1, concluding more than one year of construction on the project. The project has remained on time and on budget despite some minor setbacks, mainly having to do with getting the supplies necessary for the construction. “Wilkerson is a few weeks behind. Some of that has to do with suppliers, some of that has to do with occasional surprises. I know when you take any activity as a student, you’re writing a paper and you find a reference, but you can’t find the full reference, you can only find the citation, and to get the full reference, you need to go through interlibrary law, and that will take two days, but the paper is due tomorrow. It’s kind of like that,” Kelley said.

The law school addition managed to remain on time and on budget despite some minor setbacks. During the initial stages of construction asbestos was discovered in the building which had to be removed before construction could continue.

The law school managed to open in time for the new year and the Class of 2018. Dean Kathryn Rand told the UND website that

“We are so excited to be back in our new and renovated law school building and to welcome our Class of 2018. The addition and renovation have dramatically enhanced our classrooms and educational spaces, and will immediately benended June 30, marks the fifth in a row that fundraising topped $40 million.

Construction of The School of Medicine and Health Sciences has continued, expecting to be finished in the summer of 2016.

“The medical school, which is a huge $25 million dollar budget seems to be on time and on budget as it progresses,” Kelley said.

The construction on Robin Hall also continues on pace for its anticipated completion in April of 2016. The 66,000 square foot building will serve multiple purposes for the School of Aerospace, including be focused on unmanned aerospace research.

This summer also saw the ground break for the new Collaborative Energy Complex at the College of Engineering and Mines. The project has only raised $14.2 million dollars of the required $15 million, however, with enrollment in the college skyrocketing in recent years — increasing 130% between 2003 and 2014 — this was enough to break ground on the project.

Alex Bertsch is the Editor-in-chief for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected]