Austin Peay State University breaks ground on New Math and Computer Science Building August 17th

Clarksville, TN – Earlier this year, a narrow brick house off Ford Street, behind the Austin Peay State University Hemlock Semiconductor Building, was torn down. All that remains in its absence is a dirt lot, with a few patches of grass and gravel covering it.

At 10:00am on August 17th, shovels will plunge into that dry earth to mark the beginning of construction on APSU’s new $6.7 million mathematics and computer science building. The two-story classroom building, designed by Rufus Johnson Associates, is projected to open in the spring of 2014.

“The math and computer science building is predicated by the growth in those programs, and the increased enrollment of our student population,” Mitch Robinson, vice president of finance and administration at APSU, said earlier this year. “The building will have a large number of faculty offices, and that’s one of the things this institution is short on. As we see growth in our student population, we have to add faculty to keep up with that growth. We have to have some place to put those faculty.”

The new facility, which will house the APSU Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the APSU Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, will join the Sundquist Science Building and the Hemlock Semiconductor Building to create a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) core on the eastern side of the campus. The building’s name will be announced that Friday.

The groundbreaking ceremony, which is open to the public, coincides with that weekend’s APSU Mathematics and Computer Science Reunion. Other events scheduled for that celebration include a charter ceremony for APSU’s new chapter of Upsilon Pi Epsilon, the international honor society for the computing and information sciences, a social hour at The Gilroy Neighborhood Pub on University Avenue, a welcome reception at 10:00am, August 18th, in the Hemlock Semiconductor Laboratory and a 12:30pm reunion lunch in the Morgan University Center Ballroom.

The APSU Offices of Alumni Relations and University Advancement will host the groundbreaking and reunion celebration. For more information or for costs to attend the reunion, contact the APSU Alumni Relations Office at 931.221.7979 or leszczakto@apsu.edu.