The Anthropology Museum is open over summer break!
Summer Hours:
Wednesday - Friday 12pm-4pm
Saturday 10am-3pm
February 12, 2012
Opening Reception
On February 12, 2012 The Anthropology Museum participated in the grand opening reception of Cole Hall. The new museum gallery features two traveling exhibits: Touch The Sky, and Dancing With Spirit. The opening reception saw great community and university support. Over 300 people participated in the celebrations.
Touch The Sky, on loan from the Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota, showcases the inspiring photography of National Geographic photographer Jim Brandenburg. This exhibit will be on display at The Anthropology Museum through April 14, 2012.
Dancing With Spirit: Korean Mask and Object Theater is curated by Kathy Foley, Professor of Theater Arts at the University of California Santa Cruz. This exhibit will be displayed at The Anthropology Museum through August 25, 2012.
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February 06, 2012
Feb. 12 open house at NIU’s Cole Hall will showcase Anthropology Museum, high-tech classrooms
Kendall Thu
DeKalb, Ill. — Northern Illinois University invites the public to an open house from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12, at the newly renovated and high-tech Fay-Cooper Cole Hall.
Located in the heart of the NIU campus, the 1960s-era building has been transformed into a modern educational setting that university officials believe will be looked to as a national model for collaborative learning.
The building features three distinctive educational spaces: the technology-loaded Cole Hall Collaboratory Classroom, the Jameson Auditorium and The Anthropology Museum.
“The NIU community made a wise decision in choosing to renovate this building,” NIU President John Peters said.
“Cole Hall now honors our heritage, serves as a tribute to the NIU Huskie spirit and demonstrates how technology can enrich the classroom experience. It already is changing the way our educators teach and enhancing the way our students learn.”
The relocation of the museum, which had been located in the neighboring Stevens Building, seems particularly appropriate since Cole Hall is named in honor of famed anthropologist Fay-Cooper Cole.
The open house will include The Anthropology Museum’s official opening shortly after 1 p.m.
Some of the museum’s special features include movable walls that can be used to create customized spaces for each exhibit; low-iron glass display cases for crystal-clear viewing of artifacts; a 10½-foot-long display case cut into the museum’s exterior wall; and special humidity and temperature controls for protection and preservation of collection pieces.
“Moving the Anthropology Museum to Cole Hall represents a new chapter for our students, the anthropology department and the NIU community,” said Kendall Thu, anthropology chair.
“The Anthropology Museum invites its visitors to come along on an adventure, using the past and present as a looking glass to the future,” he added. “This beautiful state-of-the-art museum will deliver an invaluable engaged-learning experience for students and the larger community.”
Former anthropology faculty members and museum directors are expected to be in attendance at the opening, which will feature two new exhibitions:
- Touch the Sky – a series of photographs by world-renowned nature photographer Jim Brandenburg, whose work in this collection captures the breathtaking vistas and iconic creatures of the American prairie. Brandenburg has worked as a photographer with National Geographic magazine for more than three decades. His photographs also have been featured on all major television networks.
- Dancing With Spirit – an introduction to the characters and iconography of Korean mask theater. The exhibit is curated by Kathy Foley, a professor of theater arts at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Classes resumed in Cole Hall at the beginning of this semester after completion of the nearly $6 million, state-funded renovation.
Historically, the building has played an important role on campus. Its original companion 500-seat lecture halls served as the core classrooms for many general education courses in the liberal arts and were used by about 6,000 students each semester.
On Feb. 14, 2008, the building was the site of a shooting that claimed the lives of five students, and the building had stood dormant until recently.
“We have, in a sense, come full circle,” said Cherilyn G. Murer, who was chair of the NIU Board of Trustees in 2008 and was re-elected as chair this past fall.
“While the new technology-rich Cole Hall points to the bright future of our university and its students, it also echoes of the past,” Murer said. “The reawakening of Cole Hall bears witness to the resolve of the NIU community.”
Long before renovation work crews arrived, NIU began researching hundreds of case studies on how to create the best possible interactive-learning spaces.
In addition to The Anthropology Museum, the renovated Cole Hall is now home to two premier educational spaces:
- The Cole Hall Collaboratory Classroom, which boasts 48 computer stations divided among six separate learning pods. Each pod is equipped with a 65-inch, high-definition digital touch screen, enabling students to interact with educational material in the same way users interact with touch-screen iPads. NIU officials say it is not only one of the most unique and cutting-edge educational settings on campus, but anywhere.
- The 351-seat Jameson Auditorium. The 43-year-old lecture hall has been completely overhauled with the addition of improved sightlines and access, technology supporting up to 750 wireless devices, comfortable seats that swivel 360 degrees to allow for small-group interactions, the highest-quality HD projection system on campus, back-of-the-room HDTV monitors and a full complement of smart technology to meet the needs of students and educators.
“It’s a very stimulating environment to teach in,” he said.
Chown said he is impressed with the technical controls at the fingertips of the instructor, as well as the high quality images produced by the projection system and the comfortable seating for his 200 students. A wireless microphone ensures that each student’s comments are heard by his or her peers. Chown also intends to make use of the swivel seating for group discussions.
“The flexibility for small-group work provides educators with a great option,” he says. “When you’re teaching to a large audience, you sometimes feel like a circus performer trying to entertain people. But group discussions help break up the one-way flow of information and make students more responsible for their own learning.”
Susan Russell, a professor of anthropology, is similarly impressed with the collaboratory classroom.
“The students and I love this classroom—it’s spoiling us,” Russell said.
“It is so new that I know of no textbooks or instructor manuals that fit this kind of technology, so we are pioneering how to best capture a student-professor, co-learning approach to the subject matter. I really feel this classroom will revolutionize the way we teach.”
Scheduled speakers for the Feb. 12 open house program, which will begin at 2 p.m., include President Peters, Kendall Thu and Cherilyn Murer, along with NIU Provost Raymond Alden and elected officials.
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News Release
January 17, 2012
Cole Hall reopens today
High-tech facility could become model for collaborative learning
DeKalb, Ill. — With the spring semester beginning today, NIU unveiled a new crown jewel on campus — the renovated and super-high-tech Fay-Cooper Cole Hall.
What had been one of the university’s most outdated facilities is now among the most forward-thinking.
The 1960s-era building, located at the heart of campus, has been transformed into a collaborative-learning setting that university officials believe will be looked to as a national model.
The new sunlit lobby, with marble benching and a sweeping view of central campus, serves as a gateway to three premier and distinctive educational spaces:
- The Cole Hall Collaboratory Classroom, which boasts 48 computer stations divided among six separate learning pods. Each pod is equipped with a 65-inch, high-definition digital touch screen, enabling students to interact with educational material in the same way users interact with touch-screen iPads. NIU officials say it is not only one of the most unique and cutting-edge educational settings on campus, but anywhere.
- The Anthropology Museum, which offers premium museum exhibition space and a training ground for students. Features include movable walls for creation of customized exhibit spaces, low-iron glass displays for clearer viewing and an eye-catching 10½ -foot-long glass display case cut into the museum’s exterior wall.
- The 351-seat Jameson Auditorium. The 43-year-old lecture hall has been completely overhauled with the addition of improved sightlines and access, technology supporting up to 750 wireless devices, comfortable seats that swivel 360 degrees to allow for small-group interactions, the highest-quality HD projection system on campus, back-of-the-room HDTV monitors and a full complement of smart technology to meet the needs of students and educators.
“Cole Hall has been at the heart of the NIU community since it first opened its doors, and it is personally inspirational for me to know that this building now will foster learning for tens of thousands of 21st century students,” NIU President John Peters said. “We believe the newly renovated Cole Hall embodies the Forward, Together Forward spirit that binds us all together.”
Cole Hall was originally built in 1968 to house two 500-seat lecture halls.
On Feb. 14, 2008, the building was the site of a shooting that claimed the lives of five students. In the wake of the tragedy, there was talk of demolition, but NIU surveys of students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends discovered an overwhelming desire to see the building remain standing.
Historically, Cole Hall had played an important role on campus. Serving as the core classroom for many general education courses in the liberal arts, the lecture halls were used by about 6,000 students each semester, and the facility was well known to tens of thousands of students and alumni.
Long before work crews arrived to start the state-funded, nearly $6 million renovation, NIU began researching hundreds of case studies on how to create the best possible interactive-learning spaces.
“We envisioned a setting where students learn, not only through lectures and textbooks, but also through online activity, visual representations and group interactions,” NIU Provost Raymond Alden said. “We know from research that this blended-learning approach enhances retention and critical-thinking skills, and group interactions encourage students to put learned concepts into practice. So we found the top models nationally and, I think, improved upon them.”
Both visually and technologically impressive, the new Cole Hall provides students with an environment designed in every aspect to maximize the educational experience. The facility’s rebirth also carries a symbolic meaning for the NIU community.
“It is fitting that Fay-Cooper Cole Hall now stands as testament to this university’s resolve,” Alden added, “a symbol of our vision for the future and a campus crown jewel.”
John Cordogan, principal of Cordogan Clark and Associates, Inc., said his firm designed a small addition to the Cole Hall lobby but otherwise maintained the vast majority of existing spaces while fully transforming the building.
“The new Cole Hall has strong ties to the old Cole Hall, such as the beautiful exposed brickwork and high ceilings,” Cordogan said. “However, the space is new and fresh and flexible enough to meet the future needs of the NIU community. It has felt more like a full new building project than a renovation.
“We have worked on numerous auditoriums and classrooms for higher education institutions,” he added. “The spaces at Cole Hall are unique in regards to the cutting-edge technology.”
The Cole Hall Collaboratory Classroom is a prime example.
“No doubt, it will become the blueprint for future facilities on campus and beyond,” said Frederick Schwantes, NIU vice provost for special projects. “The classroom design will maximize student-to-student, team-based collaboration during problem-solving challenges and will give opportunities for professor interactions with small groups at boardroom-like tables.”
In addition to the giant touch-screen panels at each collaboratory learning pod, an even larger screen is situated at the front of classroom, where the professor can project and interact with individual or group work.
NIU faculty members say the classroom provides a whole new tool kit for instruction.
“The technology of the collaboratory is going to allow for a lot of educational creativity,” said Geography Professor Lesley Rigg, associate dean for research and graduate affairs. Rigg taught previously in Cole Hall.
“Professors now will be able to present their materials in new and more compelling ways, and students will not only interact with educational materials intellectually, but also physically,” she added. “It’s going to be an interactive experience unlike any other they’ve had in a school setting.”
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Media Contact: Paul Palian, NIU Media & Public Relations
Phone: 815-753-1681
Email: ppalain@niu.edu
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News Release
May 13, 2010
NIU unveils plan for remodeled Cole Hall:
Fall 2011 reopening planned
Note: All artist’s renderings courtesy of Cordogan Clark & Associates Inc.
DeKalb, Ill. — Northern Illinois University today unveiled plans for a remodeled Cole Hall.
When work is completed the building will include a state-of-the-art lecture hall, a new home for the NIU Anthropology Museum and a computer laboratory designed to cultivate collaborative problem solving skills. Work on the project is to begin immediately and the building is expected to be reopened in the fall of 2011.
The 15,000-square-foot building previously housed two 400-seat lecture halls. One of those halls was the site of the Feb. 14, 2008 tragedy that saw a gunman kill five students and wound 19 others.
The building, which was the largest lecture facility on campus, has been closed since the shootings. That created severe logistical problems for the university as it scrambled to relocate classes while administrators considered the best way to use the facility going forward. One of the greatest challenges was finding a way to bring badly needed lecture space back online while accommodating the widely held opinion that the site of the shootings never again be utilized as classroom space.
“I believe that this is an elegant solution, one that accommodates several academic needs while honoring the wishes of the campus community,” said NIU President John Peters. “It is respectful to the memories of our slain students while creating new and innovative spaces where students will learn for generations to come.”
The building will be remodeled to accommodate three primary uses.
Anthropology Museum
A significant portion of the southeast auditorium, where the shooting took place, will become home to the NIU Anthropology Museum.
The museum is presently located in converted classroom space in the neighboring Stevens Building. That building is slated for major remodeling work in the near future, which would have necessitated temporarily closing or relocating the museum.
The high ceilings and uninterrupted floor space available in Cole Hall will provide for greater flexibility in the creation of displays and more dramatic lighting. The new facility also will have modern temperature and humidity controls (essential to preserving museum artifacts) that are sorely lacking in the current museum.
The museum owns more than 150,000 osteological, archaeological and ethnographic specimens. Some of its stronger collections focus on Southeast Asia, New Guinea and the plains and southwest regions of North America. Currently, items that are not on display are stored in the basement of Cole Hall.
In addition to providing a place for the display of those artifacts, the museum is used to provide learning opportunities for students enrolled in NIU’s certificate program in museum studies. That program, which is the only one of its kind offered in the northern Illinois region, prepares students for careers working in museums, teaching them how to preserve, research, interpret and exhibit artifacts.
Collaborative Computing Center
The remainder of the former auditorium will house a 21st century student learning studio/computer laboratory that will encourage students to solve problems collaboratively while taking advantage of online resources.
The facility, which will accommodate up to 50 students at one time, will be based on the SCALE-UP (Student Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs) model pioneered at North Carolina State University, and used at more than 50 universities nationwide.
The lab will provide a technology-rich atmosphere for team-based problem solving. Classes will consist of students broken down into teams seated around tables with access to computers for research and whiteboards for capturing and sharing information and ideas. At the start of a session teams will be presented with interesting questions to ponder, problems to solve or hands-on simulation exercises to complete. Students will work collaboratively to find answers, with the instructor providing prompts, comparing and contrasting the actions of different teams and guiding the teams to solutions.
Other schools have used similar facilities in classes such as physics, chemistry, math, biology, engineering and even literature. Results to date indicate that students gain a better conceptual understanding of the subject matter than their peers in traditional lecture-based classes.
Auditorium
This remaining auditorium is to be revitalized and put back into service to again function as a large, 300 – 400-seat lecture hall, but with modern standards for seating, space allotments, ADA compliance, and smart classroom technology. Staggered decking may be installed on the sloped floor to accommodate desk-and-chair style rows or seats with tablet arms, and the possibility of flexible swivel seating style arrangements that make it easier for students to work in small groups.
The auditorium space lost during the remodeling process will be replaced by a new lecture hall to be constructed as part of the remodeling of the Stevens Building. The university has approached improvements at Cole and Stevens in a comprehensive manner, coordinating work on the neighboring buildings. Money for work on both buildings was included in the capital spending appropriation last July and Gov. Pat Quinn released $10.3 million to address the needs of both buildings this past January.
General Improvements
The 50-year-old Cole Hall will receive a number of improvements, including a new fire alarm and sprinkler system, replacement of antiquated heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and updated mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.
The lobby and building façade also will dramatically change so that the face of Cole Hall is completely different. These areas will be reconstructed in a completely different configuration to enhance egress, comply with ADA regulations and change the image of Cole Hall. Extensive glazing, new doors and hardware, and interior finishes will create a new interior that will be modern, attractive, and upbeat. The exterior façade could include a canopy structure.
Planning for the improvements will commence at once, with actual construction expected to begin by November or December. The goal is to have the building back online when students return for classes in the fall of 2011.
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Media Contact:
Joe King, NIU Media Relations and Internal Communications
(815) 753-4299