Movin’ on up

PIERRE — After 26 years, Capital University Center is finally ready to move out and get its own place. And university officials have lined up quite the pad.

In May, construction on the new Wallace R. Halverson Education Center, an 18,000-square-foot, $3.5 million building, will be completed. It will serve as an expansive new home for the university, which is currently based in cramped quarters in the basement of a building owned by St. Mary’s Healthcare Center.

The CUC’s current space has 8,000 square feet and contains two classrooms, a distance education room and a nursing lab. The new building will have five classrooms, a computer lab and a nursing lab. One of the classrooms is built on tiers for presentations.

The Halverson Center, located at the corner of Sioux and Washington avenues, will also have office space, a bookstore, and common area for students to study and relax.

CUC president Ron Woodburn said he is looking forward to the extra room.

“We have, in the last year or so, added a few degree programs,” Woodburn said. “It will certainly allow us the space to do that.”

The Halverson Center will also be open for use by the community, Woodburn said. Most of CUC’s classes are at night, meaning the building is available during the day. Woodburn said he believes the theater-style classroom, in particular, will be a useful addition to the community.

Woodburn said he also hopes the building will help transform the university from just a place where people take classes to a school with a communal spirit because of the ample space for classrooms, study rooms and the common area.

“Right now, there is no place for them to get together and study,” said Woodburn. “We have frequently had to chase them out of classrooms.”

Woodburn believes the new building, built with 21st Century education in mind, will be a good home for its students for decades to come.

“What it will do is let us provide better service to our students,” Woodburn said.