Another bulding at Bemidji State University is set to recieve a facelift.

Included in the recent bonding bill signed by Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty is $8.9 million for the renovation and expansion of Bemidji State University’s Sattgast Hall.  Sattgast currently hosts classes for chemistry, biology, aquatic biology and nursing.

Plans to update the facilities in Sattgast Hall had been high up on the Minnsota State Colleges and Universities (MNSCU) agenda for more than two years.

A 2006 funding proposal put together by MNSCU said that “current unsafe, outdated, and non-accessible classrooms and laboratories are limiting course offerings and hampering a professional teaching and learning environment.”

Foundation construction is planned on beginning this summer, with an 18-month timeline for project completion.

As it is now planned, the renovations and additions for Sattgast will include new science labs, the updating of current labs with newer equipment and venting, combining all the current computer labs into one “superlab,” new student and faculty lounges, and moving the activities that take place in the Harold T. Peters Aquatic Lab into Sattgast.  The aquatics lab is then planned to be demolished.

Associate Dean Dr. Patrick Guilfoile said that the plans now are to build the addition first, then move current equipment in Sattgast and the aquatics lab into the addition and then finish the renovations of the building.

There have been problems with the Aquatics Lab in the past, including a current concern of water leakage that was determined to be more costly to fix than to build new facilities.  Guilfoile noted more upside to moving from the current aquatics lab site to Sattgast as well.

“Having all the spaces for science within the same building will add some convenience,” Guilfoile said. 

Guilfoile pointed out that currently when students need to do projects in the aquatics lab, some equipment and plants needed to be carried down to the aquatics lab.  With temperatures down to thirty-below zero in the winter, some of the plants wouldn’t make it through the cold trek.

The addition will also allow the nursing faculty to move their offices into the completed Sattgast building.  The nursing program is currently expanding and will need the new facilities to continue to grow. 

“We’re being very mindful,” Interim Dean of the College of Social and Natural Scicnces Dr. Patricia Rogers said.

“We’re planning on moving ourselves into the health services in a big way.”  Rogers added that the move into health sciences includes future plans for pre-med programs and other higher levels of nursing.

 “This will be a much more modern facility,” Dr. Rogers said.  “It’s a building for the 21st Century.”