Roales

The center's only building was located in a residential neighborhood at 508 W. Taylor St., and the first laboratory facility on the new IU campus was located in a garage on the property. This was essentially IU Kokomo's first "science" building.

After booming enrollments forced the fledgling Kokomo extension to move to West Sycamore Street and the Kingston-Seiberling Mansion, Mr. Hunt had a decrepit carriage house on that property rehabilitated and remodeled into Kokomo's second "science building." It contained a chemistry laboratory on the second floor, as well as physics and biology laboratories and a lecture hall on the first.

Eventually, ever increasing enrollments forced the construction of a new campus and an all-inclusive structure, the Main Building, on South Washington Street. The fourth iteration of IU Kokomo's science facilities is now located in Virgil and Elizabeth Hunt Hall and stands as a testimony to Virgil Hunt's vision, not only for science education in north central Indiana, but for higher education in general.

Gary Dolph, professor of botany at IU Kokomo, talks with a high school student about her science fair project.

During spring 1992, with the support of then-Chancellor Emita Hill and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Arthur Gentile, the faculty and staff of the Department of Biological and Physical Sciences and the IU Bureau of Facilities Programming began the planning process for a new, much needed science facility. After the consolidation of the Department of Mathematics and Information Systems with the Department of Biological and Physical Sciences to form the Department of Natural, Information and Mathematical Sciences (NIMS), the original program was revised in 1997 to include those units as well as the Division of Allied Health Sciences.

The Main Building was completed in 1965, and originally included only one biology, one physics and two chemistry labs. The building was remodeled twice to upgrade the science facilities. At the time of Hunt Hall's completion, the Main Building housed three chemistry and two biology labs; a combined physics/geology laboratory was located in the campus' East Building. Offices for science faculty were located within already cramped research labs. In recent years, the old facilities often failed to meet changes in scientific, research and teaching methodologies.

Chancellor Hill insisted on IU Kokomo having nothing short of the best, most modern facility—one that would last well into the next century. She encouraged the faculty to become active in Project Kaleidoscope—a National Science Foundation and Kresge Foundation-funded program that aims to create science buildings ". . . that work."

With these principles in mind, the faculty and staff, together with the BSA LifeStructures design team, set out to look at science buildings throughout the country and create a design for the new building. The resulting Hunt Hall is one that incorporates open spaces to attract students and allow architectural vistas into the teaching and research spaces. Numerous interior windows were designed to demystify science and pique curiosity as well as bring outside light into the building's interior. For its efforts, BSA LifeStructures garnered two national architectural awards for Hunt Hall.

Although funding was provided for the building's construction, no monies were allocated towards the purchase of new scientific equipment. Consequently, two funding campaigns for science equipment were mounted. The first effort funded the replacement of classroom and laboratory equipment that was up to 30 years old.

Although basic scientific principles remain unchanged, the scientific equipment that students and faculty use to explore those principles, and that alumni will use in future professions, has changed dramatically in recent decades. New technologies are always emerging that require universities to purchase and support new or upgraded equipment. When an X-ray machine was purchased in 2003 for the associate of science in radiography degree program, digital X-ray technology was just beginning to come over the horizon. Now, it is used in radiography services virtually everywhere. As a result, IU Kokomo will need to upgrade the instrument to accept "digital film" and purchase "digital film" readers and software to keep students abreast of current practices in the medical community. New instruments also will eventually fail and need repair or replacement.

It quickly became evident that the funds raised in the first campaign would only provide a short-term solution. Additional funds were needed to complete the equipment modernization and provide instrumentation that was not available to faculty and students. In 2002, the campus applied for and was granted a Kresge Challenge Grant to complete the purchase of new equipment and to provide an endowment for future equipment needs. With the Kresge Equipment Endowment, as well as a gift from Virgil and Elizabeth Hunt's children, Bill Hunt and Marjo Hunt Biddinger, funds will be available in the future to make repairs and to purchase scientific equipment that the campus does not currently possess. The endowment will also allow IU Kokomo to lay groundwork for new academic offerings in the sciences.

The fund-raising efforts have already paid off. Undergraduate research in the sciences has long been part of IU Kokomo. Now, our students are able to access and operate such sophisticated equipment as a scanning electron microscope, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer and other equipment. The availability of such equipment has also enabled the campus to attract, recruit and hire new faculty in the sciences. In turn, our students benefit from the knowledge and techniques brought to IU Kokomo by new faculty on the cutting edge of research.