News Release
October 2002
(Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania) - On Friday, October 18, the Moravian College Board of
Trustees approved naming the College's new academic building in honor
of Mrs. Priscilla Payne Hurd, chair of the Board of Trustees. The fifteen
million dollar academic building was officially named prior to an official
dedication ceremony, also held on October 18.
Priscilla Payne Hurd, a Moravian trustee since 1979, assumed
the chairmanship of the Board of Trustees at its October 1999 board
meeting. She was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from
Moravian College in 1993.
Mrs. Hurd is a well-known and prominent figure on Moravian's
campus. Her support of the institution has included funding for the
Hurd Center for Music and Art, the establishment of the Payne Art Gallery,
and the launching of the Comenius Scholarships for outstanding students.
Hundreds of students, faculty members, and other members of the Moravian
community turned out to honor her 80th birthday in September 1999. As
chair of Moravian's Board, Mrs. Hurd has spearheaded major improvements
in the College's infrastructure and programs, including construction
of the new academic complex and townhouse-style student residences,
and a campus-wide renovation of signage and landscaping. In October
2001, the Board of Trustees formally designated the College's campus
on Church Street in historic Bethlehem the "Priscilla Payne Hurd
Campus."
Her
prominent leadership role in the region has not been limited to Moravian;
she was also the first woman chair of the board of St. Luke's Hospital
in Bethlehem. Rotary International has named her a Paul Harris Fellow
"for tangible and significant assistance given for the furtherance
of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the
world." She is also a trustee of the Frank E. and Seba B. Payne
Foundation. She was named an Eminent Fellow of the American Biographical
Institute in 1993.
The 55,000-square-foot, ADA-compliant building was erected
on land between the Collier Hall of Science and the Haupert Union Building,
facing Memorial Hall across from an open plaza. A second-floor bridge
connects the new building to Collier Hall of Science.
The Priscilla Payne Hurd Academic Complex is a technologically
advanced classroom facility containing fourteen new classrooms, including
two tiered lecture halls, with a total seating capacity of 618. All
classrooms are "smart" classrooms, with a computer stations
for the instructor, selected multimedia equipment to match the use of
the room, and a ceiling-mounted projector. Some classrooms also include
student computer stations.
One classroom is designed as a mock teaching space for kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade
teacher training. Laboratories include a computer laboratory with 30
student workstations, a data and statistics laboratory, an experimental
teaching room, three observation rooms for psychology, and four small
student and faculty research rooms. The conference and breakout rooms
lend themselves to small group discussions and seminars.
The building will house four academic departments: Mathematics
and Computer Science, Psychology, Sociology, and Education, with individual
offices for permanent faculty members and four group offices for adjunct
faculty. The placement of faculty offices for the four academic departments
in proximity to each other promotes the College's multidisciplinary
efforts, while proximity to the classrooms and to student/faculty common
areas will provide for easy interaction on a one-to-one basis.
The construction of the Priscilla Payne Hurd Academic
Complex addressed what was a pressing need, additional classrooms accommodate
an increasing enrollment with technologically-enhanced space to meet
the demands of modern pedagogy.
Moravian College is a private, coeducational, selective
liberal arts college located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Tracing its
founding to 1742, it is recognized as America's sixth-oldest college.
Visit the Web site at www.moravian.edu.
