While You Were Away

Track meet: Paul Moyer, director of athletics (right), gives Priscilla Payne Hurd, chair of the Board of Trustees, and President Rokke a progress report on the new eight-lane track and other amenities of the Steel Field complex, which received a $2.6 million upgrade this summer. Rocco Calvo Field, where football will be played, is covered in Astroturf; the track meets NCAA specifications; and the grandstand has been rebuilt. (Photo: Regina Gower)

Every summer is a time for repairs and renovations on campus, but it seems as though this summer was Construction City at Moravian. Among the many projects completed over the hot months were:

• The Steel Field complex, as it is now called, finished most of its $2.6 million renovation, which includes Astroturf on Rocco Calvo Field, an expanded eight-lane track that meets NCAA regional standards, and a new grandstand to replace the older one, which was structurally unsound. All in time for the first home football game of the season, Saturday against Delaware Valley College.

Improvements also have begun on Gillespie Field and the Hoffman tennis courts.

• Collier Hall of Science has new safety railings on its front stairs, clear glass doors (a lot less weighty than the old ones), and a refurbished lobby with new display cases, carpet, and other features. Mellon Hall now has a multimedia lecture podium to run its ceiling-mounted projector and video screen.

• The Food Court has been renamed the Blue and Grey Café.

• There’s a new ceiling in Clewell Dining Hall on South Campus, and the air-conditioning pipes have been wrapped to take care of water condensation (which made the ceiling leak). The dining hall got new chairs, too. The old ones were offered on a first-come, first-served basis at the faculty/staff picnic in June.

• New snow guards on the roof of PPHAC mean an end to miniavalanches on our heads.

• A plan is under way to open a campus convenience store in Anna Nitschmann House.

• The teaching lab in Reeves Library has new tables, new computers (these were installed last spring), and new art on the walls—all to make it more attractive and high tech, says library director Rita Berk. (New chairs are on order.) When not in use for information literacy instruction, it is available for student use. Also, there is now a soda machine in the library’s coffeehouse.