Administration plans to improve campus buildings and methods of communication this academic year.
Improvements will be made to how students can communicate with each other later this semester utilizing a new online portal that will replace TruView. The new portal is expected to be in place sometime during October. This new online service has been built on the foundations of TruView, but will include new options for communicating.
“[The portal] has features that allow you to create groups and use those groups to communicate,” said Tyana Lange, vice president for enrollment management and marketing. “It can be anything as formal as, ‘I have this club I am the president of and I want my club to have an official group’ to, ‘I’m taking a biology class and we want to set up a study group of five students so we can communicate through campus’.”
The new option will allow students to use a Truman State University-provided method of communication rather than using other group messaging services.
Administration is also working to make sure that all members of the Truman community feel involved by making sure everyone knows what is happening on campus.
“I really want to make sure that students know about the activities that they have an opportunity to participate in,” Lange said. “I am a firm believer that even if I don’t choose to participate, knowing that I could if I wanted to makes me feel more connected and engaged in the community.”
In addition to keeping students aware of activities happening on campus, administration wants students to know about the events happening in Kirksville. Administration wants to keep a connection between the University and the city of Kirksville, and having events for members of both communities is one of the ways of fostering that connection. One such event is the upcoming new student welcome, which is occurring Sept. 12 outside of the Armory. This event is usually held downtown, but because of construction, the location has changed.
Truman also has construction going on as part of new plans from the administration.
This includes a $4.8 million project to renovate the north wing of the Pershing Building. The wing was originally meant to be renovated when the Health Science Building was constructed, but the money was held back at the time.
“What we are doing is all new heat and air conditioning, new electrical, life-safety systems, which means sprinklers and fire alarms and all that,” said Dave Rector, vice president for administration, finance and planning.
The largest change to the renovated wing of the Pershing Building will be a new nursing lab on the top floor. Additional funding of half a million dollars was acquired to equip the new lab.
Construction is planned to be completed by the end of December. This would allow for the renovated wing to be reopened for the spring semester.