Campus Upgrades Enhance Student Experiences

Continually improving the physical campus is one key to sustaining excellence for the long-term, and Rose-Hulman has made significant commitments to facilities across the campus—including academic facilities and those touching student life and athletics.

Exceptional Academic Facilities

Perhaps the most prominent symbol of these commitments is the N ew Academic Building that has completed its first year of service to learning and innovation. The 70,000-square-foot, $29 million building is a hub of hands-on learning and intellectual creativity, with state-of-the-art design studios, collaborative workspaces and science laboratories.

Inside the new building, students are now transforming ideas to renderings to working prototypes, mixing chemical compounds, and even creating finished products. They work collaboratively and alongside professors, using sophisticated laser-cutting devices, 3D printers, machine tools, and CNC machines, among other technologies that match what they’ll encounter post-graduation.

At home in the new building is the engineering design program. There’s also a food science development and testing laboratory—a collaboration between chemistry and chemical engineering—along with additional space for instruction and research in chemistry and biochemistry.

Just one example of the facility’s unusual capacity for collaborative learning and community building was a Final Friday Cooking Club celebration in November 2021, taking advantage of

JANUARY 10, 2022

Mechanical engineering student Ruth Hammond was among three national 2022 Apple Scholars and started a global educational adventure at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden.

JANUARY 17, 2022 the food science laboratory. The event was a respite from academic rigors but also a complement to such learning as the Chemistry of Food course, and it culminated in a fine meal for participants.

NASA planetary protection lead engineer Moogega “Moo” Cooper, PhD, shared her journey in becoming a real life “Guardian of the Galaxy” as the campus celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

A central atrium within the new academic building puts the spotlight on the collaborative work happening all around—the hands-on learning that is a hallmark of a Rose-Hulman education. The colorful, interactive and high-tech “Depth of Field” artwork at the center is appropriate for a technology-focused space. And the building’s design and technology earned the state’s first Silver WELL Building certification, also fitting for a forward-thinking institution.

Even as the New Academic Building begins its service, the institute’s primary academic building is entering its second century with a significant renovation. Moench Hall recently turned 100 years old, and hasn’t had a major renovation since the 1980s, so it was due for some retrofits and upgrades.

It’s the building’s third renovation since it opened in 1922, at that time marking the move of the institution from downtown Terre Haute. The current renovation, slated to be completed by Summer 2023, will improve heating, air conditioning and ventilation, include remodeled offices, and improve student services. The building includes studio laboratories and is home to multiple engineering departments, along with the Departments of Mathematics, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts.

FEBRUARY 18, 2022

Encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit within Indiana was the focus of a free workshop to help small businesses participate in federal innovation research and technology transfer programs.

FEBRUARY 19, 2022

Math professors and students organized activities to get high school girls interested in mathematical science career fields during a Sonia Kovalevsky Math Day for Girls campus event.

Investing in the Student Experience

Developments around campus also enhance the student experience away from class, as well. Improvements in student housing, including renovations at Skinner and Scharpenberg halls, will help Rose-Hulman build on its reputation for comfortable student accommodations. Indeed, the institute’s residence halls ranked fifth on The Princeton Review’s list of best college dorms, based on student ratings. Campus improvements also include remodeling of the bookstore and mailroom. Adding to the highly regarded campus experience are trees, nearly a quarter million of them across 1,300 acres. The institute has been recognized for four consecutive years with the Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree Campus Higher Education designation. The honor spotlights the campus commitment to effective urban forest management and the engagement of faculty, staff and students in conservation. Beyond regularly observing Arbor Day, Rose-Hulman has a tree advisory committee, a campus tree care plan, regular annual expenditures for its campus tree program, and a related student service-learning project—all requirements for the designation.

Growing the Campus

Plans continue for development of the Hulman Farm property on the south side of U.S. 40, which the institute acquired in 2017. Projects in the works include the relocation of Rose-Hulman Ventures, now located about six miles from campus. Private and federal support in tandem with $1.5 million in funding from the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) grant program would help cover that move. The plan would bring Rose-Hulman Ventures’ real-world connections and opportunities closer to students and faculty.

This growth could be a defining moment for Rose’s distinctive ecosystem of engineering expertise, and offer an enterprise unlike that of any other college or university. The property offers additional long-term prospects for economic development and educational opportunities. Development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem we are calling “Innovation Grove” could provide significant benefits for faculty, the institution, the overall community, and most importantly, more internships and opportunities for students.

Residence hall updates, campus beautification efforts and plans for an “Innovation Grove” are all intended to enhance the student experience at Rose.

MARCH 3, 2022

Two national studies ranked Rose-Hulman within the top 30 colleges nationally for return on investment, with one study reporting that return at more than $2.35 million for alumni having a bachelor’s degree.

MARCH 11, 2022

Teams of high school students had miniature autonomous vehicles completing laps on a variety of racetracks in a high-tech challenge organized by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

MARCH 12, 2022

High school students had fun working together to design creative robotics and wireless communications projects centered around outer space in the Rose-BUD program’s SPARK! campus event.

MARCH 12, 2022

Middle school students earned opportunities for college scholarships and to represent the state against the nation’s best young problem solvers through the 2022 Indiana MATHCOUNTS competition, conducted on campus.