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Contact: Allison Rose Lopez, KU School of Education, (785) 864-9610.

Education school plans homecoming party in new home

Editors note: Scanned photos of Joseph R. Pearson Hall, before and after renovation, are available by calling University Relations at (785) 864-8853 or the School of Education at (785) 864-9610.

LAWRENCE - As part of homecoming at the University of Kansas, the KU School of Education will offer the public and alumni their first opportunity to view the results of the $14.1 million renovation of Joseph R. Pearson Hall at 11th Street and West Campus Road - the school's new home.

The school will have a pre-game party at 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, in the school's student commons. The party begins two and a half hours before the11:30 a.m. homecoming football game between KU and the University of Colorado.

The pre-game party marks the first public open house since the School of Education moved into the building in August. This fall also is the first time in the 90-year history of the School of Education that three of the School's four departments are housed in the same building, which features state-of-the-art instructional technology, computer labs and high-tech classrooms.

Homecoming visitors may tour the school's new home during the open house. Throughout the party, visitors will enjoy the sounds of the Euphoria Stringband. One of the bluegrass band's members is Reva Friedman-Nimz, KU associate professor of teaching and leadership.

Formal dedication of the renovated building will be April 21, 2001. Originally constructed in 1958 as a men's residence hall, Joseph R. Pearson Hall has been transformed into a 105,000 square-foot, student-centered building with 18 state-of-the-art classrooms in addition to laboratories, clinics and offices. Renovation and new construction work, designed by Gould Evans architects of Lawrence, began in August 1998.

Through the 1996 Crumbling Classroom funding for Kansas Board of Regents universities, the Kansas Legislature provided $12.1 million for the renovation of Pearson. In 1998, the Kansas Board of Regents approved an additional $2 million to help furnish the school.

The school's central administration and classrooms had been housed in Bailey Hall since 1956. When the school began to outgrow Bailey, Pearson was selected as its new home.

In recent years, KU's School of Education has been housed in four locations: three at the Lawrence campus - Bailey Hall, Robinson Center and the Dole Center - and one at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan. Offices for the health, sport and exercise sciences department will remain in Robinson and a few offices for the Center for Research on Learning will remain in the Dole Center.