The University of Scranton, built on a 58-acre campus, is located in the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The campus serves a community of 75,000 people within the greater metropolitan area Since gaining university status in 1938, the institution has undertaken over 50 renovation projects. More than $240 million has been spent on new construction, including the Loyola Science Center, DeNaples Center, Pilarz and Montrone Halls, Condron Hall, Edward R. Leahy, Jr. Hall, and the Dionne Green locations.
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Memorial Library
Completed in 1992, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Memorial Library was designed to replace the Alumni Memorial Library as the student body and the library's holdings grew. The Weinberg Memorial Library has a seating capacity of up to 1000. The library currently houses 473,830 volumes, more than 15,500 electronic journals, 562,368 pieces of microform, and 1,709 current and archived periodical subscriptions. It is also home to the University Archives and Special Collections, which features many rare books, as well as university records. The third floor houses several administrative offices and features two large classrooms that educate users about the library and its services. The fourth floor has a large reading room featuring a stained glass window. The fifth floor is the Scranton Heritage Room, a large open hall that features 39 panel paintings by Trevor Southey depicting art, religion, and science in the Lackawanna Valley and the world.
Renovations at the Library include the opening of multiple 24-hour study rooms, including the Pro Deo Room, the Reilly Learning Commons, and, most recently, the entire second floor. The Pro Deo Room contains a computer lab with networked PCs, two laser printers, a vending machine area, and a Java City Café.
In order to raise the $13.3 million needed to build the Library, the University of Scranton launched the "Gateway to the Future" Fundraising Campaign. In late 1989, Harry Weinberg, a former Scranton businessman and long-time benefactor of the University of Scranton, made significant headway in the fundraising goal by announcing a six million dollar donation to the university from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, with five million dollars going to the library and the other one million going to the school's Judaic Studies Institute. In order to honor the significant contribution of Mr. Weinberg, the new library was named for him and his wife.
Before becoming home to the Weinberg Memorial Library, the site had once belonged to Worthington Scranton where he lived until moving to the estate in 1899. His previous house was converted into the Hahneman Hospital until it relocated in 1906 to the current Community Medical Center site. In 1941, Scranton donated the land to the university. In the 1950s, the site held the A Building barracks, which were purchased by the university in order to accommodate increased enrollment due to the GI Bill which were used as classrooms and offices, until they were demolished in 1962. Until the construction of the Weinberg Memorial Library in the 1990s, the site housed asphalt playing courts.
Patrick and Margaret DeNaples Center
On January 31, 2006, the university announced plans for the DeNaples Center, a new $30,000,000 campus center that would replace Gunster Memorial Student Center and mark the university's most ambitious project in its 118-year history. In the four decades since Gunster had been constructed in 1960, the University of Scranton, as University President Father Pilarz said, "has evolved into a broadly regional, comprehensive institution with students coming from more than 30 states and more than 35 countries," and thus "has simply outgrown the 77,000 square foot Gunster Center, which was built for a time when only 228 of our total student enrollment of 2,300 lived on campus."
The first floor of the building includes a grand lobby, the campus bookstore, the student mail center, commuter lockers, a Provisions on Demand (P.O.D.) convenience and the DeNaples Food Court, a retail dining option with seating for 250, which includes StarbucksCoffee, Chick-fil-A, and Quiznos among other options. The second floor offers a fireplace lounge, offices for Student Affairs, University Ministries and the Student Forum. The Student Forum contains a computer lab for students to use, as well as student space with couches and tables. The Student Forum is home to the Center for Student Engagement, including the offices for the University of Scranton Programming Board (USPB), the Aquinas newspaper, the Windhover yearbook, the Jane Kopas Women's Center, the Multicultural Center, Student Government, and Community Outreach. The third floor serves as the primary dining space in the building and has seating for 800. The fourth floor includes a subdividable 7,000 sq. ft. ballroom with dinner seating for 425 and lecture seating for more than 700 and three multipurpose meeting rooms as well as the Ann and Leo Moscovitz Theater. On September 13, 2009, the fourth floor ballroom was dedicated in honor of Rev. Bernard R. McIllhenny, S.J., who served as headmaster at Scranton Prep from 1958 to 1966 and dean of admissions at the university from 1966 to 1997.
The DeNaples Center was the first building on campus designed and constructed to achieve the LEED certification as part of the university's Sustainability initiatives, which it received in February 2009. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a cutting-edge system for certifying design, construction and operations of "green" buildings, coordinated by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The DeNaples Center is named in honor of the late Patrick and Margaret DeNaples, the parents of Louis DeNaples Sr., a local business owner, active community volunteer and philanthropist, former university board member, and reputed organized crime associate. The DeNaples Center was dedicated in February 2008. Upon the completion and opening of the DeNaples Center, the Gunster Memorial Student Center was demolished and was replaced by the Dionne Green, a large green space located directly in front of the DeNaples Center.
University Commons
For 25 years, there had been an effort by the University of Scranton to close the 900 and 1000 blocks of Linden Street which ran through the school's campus. In 1980, the improvement project was actualized. The Commons project was intended to create a more attractive, park-like atmosphere on the campus and to eliminate the safety hazards associated with pedestrian and vehicle traffic. With that new space, the university hoped to create a 20-foot-wide brick walkway, trees, benches, a water fountain, and patio area in addition to developing the area with landscaping.
The University Commons proposal was approved by the Scranton City Council on December 20, 1978. Construction on the project was begun on June 2, 1980, as parts of Linden Street were removed. The project was completed around November 1980 and dedication ceremonies were held in December 1980. Currently, it serves as the main walkway through the university's campus.
Royal Way In 1991, the University Commons was extended on the 300 block of Quincy Avenue between Linden and Mulberry Streets, which had been closed to vehicular traffic and owned by the university since 1987. This pedestrian pathway, named Royal Way, serves as an official entrance to the university and the GLM (Gannon-Lavis-McCormick) student residences.
At the time of its construction, the 24-foot-wide Royal Way was paved in z-brick and featured landscaping with trees and shrubs. The Mulberry Street entrance to the Royal Way featured a campus gate, a gift from the University of Scranton Classes of 1985, 1990 and 1991, and the opposing terminus was Metanoia, the bronze sculpture of St. Ignatius by Gerard Baut. The sculpture has since been moved to the opposite side of the University Commons, in front of the Long Center.
Current academic buildings Alumni Memorial Hall
Completed in 1960, the two-story building, formerly called Alumni Memorial Library, was designed to hold 150,000 volumes; the collection at the time numbered approximately 62,000 volumes. It also had study space for approximately 500 students. The split-level design also included conference rooms, a music room, a visual aid room, microfilm facilities, and a smoking lounge. The buff iron-spot building was considered cutting edge at the time, with glare-reducing thermo-pane glass, noise-reducing solid brick walls, radiant heating and cooling, and humidity control. Although originally estimated at $750,000, overall construction costs were approximately $806,000 after complications occurred when a massive mining cavity, complete with a network of surrounding tunnels, was discovered to lie only forty feet below the surface of the building site. Using a digging rig brought in from Texas, contractors sunk 33 steel casings into the ground, each more than 40 feet long, and then poured concrete through them to form pillars in order to support the structure. To raise money for the construction, a fundraising campaign led by Judge James F. Brady sought individual contributions from each of the university's alumni.
The building was extensively renovated in 1993 after the completion of the new Weinberg Memorial Library. No longer needed to house the university's book collection or to serve as a study space for students, Alumni Memorial Hall was converted to house the Psychology Department on the second floor, which had formerly been located in O’Hara Hall, as well as the Division of Planning and Information Resources, which was formerly known as the University Computing and Data Services Center. The new location in Alumni Memorial Hall "significantly enhance[d] educational and research facilities" for the Psychology Department, as John Norcross, chairman of the Psychology Department, remarked.
Brennan Hall
Completed in 2000, Brennan Hall houses the departments of the Arthur J. Kania School of Management, or KSOM. The five-story, 71,000-square-foot building, located on the east side of Madison Avenue, features nine classrooms, seminar rooms, offices, a 140-seat auditorium, a quiet study area, an advising center, board rooms, and an Executive Education Center.
The classrooms are located on the first two floors of Brennan Hall. Two of the nine classrooms are two tiered case-study rooms equipped for video teleconferencing. Two other classrooms are computers rooms, while the rest are traditional classrooms. In 2008, the university dedicated one of Brennan Hall's classrooms. The Jack and Jean Blackledge Sweeney Classroom on the first floor honors Jack Sweeney '61, the retired president and co-founder of Special Defense Systems in Dunmore, a member of the Pride, Passion, Promise Campaign Executive Committee, and an active University of Scranton alumni.
The first floor also contains the Irwin E. Alperin Financial Center, which was opened in 2007. The Alperin Center was designed to simulate a stock market trading floor, complete with an electronic ticker and data displays, 40 computers, a surround sound system, conference facilities, and a network of specialized software-designed to support the Kania School business curriculum with simulation capabilities and faculty-student research on financial and commodity markets.
The third and fourth floors house faculty offices, departmental offices, the dean's office, and conference rooms. There is a behavioral lab for teaching and research purposes, meeting and storage places for clubs and an MBA lounge that will include locker space for master's degree students.