Hundreds of students attended last Friday’s LSA Homewarming Party to celebrate the opening of the newly expanded and renovated LSA Building.

The event—which took place on Friday, January 24, from 2:00-4:00 p.m.—was free and open to all LSA students, and included comfort food such as vegan chili and mac ‘n’ cheese, information sessions on the new space, and even an appearance from Reggie the Campus Corgi. The LSA Homewarming Party was a zero-waste event.

“[The change] is like night and day,” LSA senior Cassidy Guros told the Michigan Daily. “It makes me feel like I’m even more appreciated as a student because I have a space that’s dedicated to me and my studies.”

The renovated and expanded LSA Building is LSA’s new on-campus home for LSA students, and includes a range of resources including spaces for students to connect, collaborate, and study as well as programs to help them succeed academically and professionally.

Those resources include: the LSA Opportunity Hub, which supports students through a range of services as they connect their academic interests to their professional aspirations; the first-ever LSA Transfer Student Center, a dedicated home on campus where transfer students can connect to the U-M community and get access to tools to help them succeed in class and after graduation; optiMize, a student-founded organization that runs an annual social innovation challenge and empowers student-powered entrepreneurship; and the LSA Scholarships Office. The new LSA Building is also home to the LSA Student Government, the Okun Bomba Family Navigation Desk, and places to meet with employers and alumni—all together in one place.

 


Bringing all of these social, informational, academic, professional, and financial resources together in one place represents a new phase in liberal arts education—one where understanding and taking advantage of the connections between topics, courses, and experiences is more important than ever. 

The building also represents a new front door to the college—a highly visible campus landmark that students will notice and use today and far into the future. 

“We are thrilled to have this new, dynamic space open as a new home on campus for LSA students,” said Anne Curzan, dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, who attended the LSA Homewarming event. “We designed the new LSA Building to increase LSA students’ access to game-changing resources to support their success here on campus and in the next chapters after graduation. It’s wonderful to see our students take advantage of this new facility, and I was delighted to spend time with all the students who turned out to help us celebrate at the LSA Homewarming Party.”

Construction on the LSA Building addition began in 2017, and was designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and SmithGroup and included work from 17 individual specialty design groups. The building is certified LEED Silver, with features such as auto-dimming lights, insulated glass, and windows that deter birds from accidentally hitting the building.

The building would not have been possible without the generous support of LSA donors. A formal dedication ceremony celebrating the new building and the donors whose generous support made it possible will take place in fall 2020.

To learn more, watch a video of LSA Dean Anne Curzan explaining some of the exciting parts of the new LSA Building.

 

Photos by Scott Soderberg | Michigan Photography