Launching to the Future

When construction is finished and everything is in place, Kopchick Hall will stand as more than the newest building at IUP. It will be a launching pad. Not just for discovery and knowledge, but for the future of IUP.

We spend a lot of time talking, planning, and building for our future. Why? Because although we have a proud tradition as a truly great university, we know we are so much more than what we have been. Our potential is limitless, and we are excited about the horizon we’re headed for. Kopchick Hall represents that future.

It will be a place where students and faculty members work side by side every day, sharing and creating knowledge and expertise. It will be where members of the regional science community come to join in the work and share their results. Some amazing things will happen there, and they’ll happen for all IUP students. All of our students are required to take at least one science class, so they will inevitably come to Kopchick Hall and have their eyes opened to amazing worlds in chemistry, biology, physics, geoscience, engineering, and many other disciplines. But it goes beyond science. The IUP of the future is a student-centered university in which no one feels left behind or lost.

KOPCHICK HALL: Where Discoveries Happen

Thanks to the largest gift in the history of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education, from alumni John and Char Kopchick, in 2024 we will be opening Kopchick Hall, a 142,000-square-foot launching pad for discovery. Outfitted with a planetarium, labs, a greenhouse, tutoring rooms, and many other places for exploration, Kopchick Hall will be the home of the Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the hub of IUP’s STEM work for generations to come. It replaces Weyandt Hall, which opened in the 1960s and grew obsolete over time as technology rapidly changed.

SHARING AND CREATING KNOWLEDGE: The Center of Experiential Learning

A well-rounded education happens in many places, not just in a classroom. From internships to studying abroad, job shadowing to research projects, IUP students gain valuable skills from experiential learning, in which they learn by doing. That’s a tradition at IUP that will only grow, reaching every part of our university––and beyond. We’re forming partnerships that will increase these opportunities while also making a difference in our communities. It’s the “doing” on top of the “knowing” that leads to expertise, and that’s what will continue to happen daily in the IUP of the future.