USD Magazine Fall 2020

[ r e a w a k e n i n g ]

Library renovat ion and Learning Commons completed NEW SPACES, NEW POSSIBILITIES I by Krystn Shrieve

ing, teaching, collaboration and research, as well as spaces for classes, group projects, discus- sions, events and exhibits. The renovation offers 38 small group study rooms, individual seating for 1,000 users, a lounge/ reading room and five individual study spaces in the Camino Hall stacks. It also features expanded exhibit, gallery and display spac- es, three new library instruction rooms, two seminar rooms and a presentation room, as well as a faculty reading room, a journal reading room and university archives and special collections. The Mother Hill Reading Room, one of the most beloved spaces on campus, remains unchanged. “My hope is that the entire

students had grown by more than 1,200, and that growth has far outpaced our classroom space for USD’s College of Arts and Sciences or the School of Busi- ness,” says Vice Provost Tom Herrinton, PhD. “Each of those schools needed approximately 50,000 additional assignable square feet of classroom spaces to accommodate their needs. So it was definitely time to grow.” The renovated Copley Library provides places for active learn-

n more ways than one, the University of San Diego has experienced a Renaissance. Initially, it was due to an en- deavor known as the Renaissance Plan, a plan to not just renovate some of the original and most cherished spaces on campus but to also construct new build- ings to enhance learning and the overall student experience. A key phase of that plan was already in motion when COVID- 19 hit, which included the reno-

vation of Copley Library as well as the construction of the Learn- ing Commons, USD’s newest academic building. Both build- ings will be completed in the fall. These new spaces will trans- form how professors are teach- ing and how students are learn- ing. It’s transforming how spaces are used, how technology is ac- cessed, where students sit and how they interact with their peers and their professors. “Our full-time enrollment of

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