The newly remodeled Lincoln Hall is just about ready to be shown off, and Christi Garst-Santos, director of the School of American and Global Studies, says this building pushes SDSU’s liberal arts firmly into the 21st century.
“I did my PhD at the University of Iowa, and I would say this space is as good, if not better than any of their humanities and liberal arts spaces,” said Garst-Santos.
Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Lynn Sargent says this is a big move for South Dakota State University.
“SDSU has mainly been associated with agriculture and engineering for a long time,” Sargent said. “This is kind of let’s propel ourselves to be state of the art in all fields.”
Lincoln Hall has been completely renovated on the inside from inserting new hallways to adding a mezzanine over pavilions on the second floor. With all these changes, the building still has the historic outside and feeling, and Sargent said that is credit to Barry Dunn and SDSU.
“They could have inserted new modern lights or new ceiling tiles which would have cost less, but it was important to them to keep the historic feeling of the building,” said Sargent.
The near 100-year-old building now houses the School of American and Global Studies, which before Lincoln, the school was split in half with one half being in Wagner Hall, and the other in West Hall. Garst-Santos is thrilled to finally have a hall for the whole school.
“This is the first time the whole school has been together,” said Garst-Santos. “We became a school in the fall of 2019, and it’s the first time all 23 faculty members have been together, and that’s great. We can easily say, ‘hey, can you come to my class tomorrow?’ without having them walk across campus or sending an email.”
Along with housing the school, the faculty for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences will be in Lincoln also.
Garst-Santos said this was not only important for faculty, but also students as they get a space they can call their own for the first time. She also said Lincoln Hall is already becoming popular with many spaces accessible for clubs across the building.
One goal Dean Sargent hopes comes to this building is bringing students to the southern corner of the university.
“A lot of the life of campus has shifted to the interior by the Union, and I think it’s going to reactivate this corner of campus,” said Sargent. “I think we’ll be using Sylvan Theatre more, I think we’ll be using Sylvan Green, I think we’ll have public events here, and I think students will feel this part of campus is just a great part of the SDSU experience.”
The hall has been open for classes since the beginning of the semester, but construction is still happening. The formal opening for Lincoln Hall will be a two-day event on Sept. 12 and Sept. 13.
The Lincoln Hall project started in 2012, and took eight years of planning for funding, repairs and renovations.
Originally, Lincoln Hall was going to be built in three phases, but after bids and donations were more than expected, the university decided to combine phase two and three together.
The total cost for the renovation is $13 million. The Board of Regents reallocated $3 million to SDSU, and $10 million was given in a bonding process to the Board of Regents.
Breakout- Opening Ceremony
Tuesday, Sept. 12
2:30 p.m Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
3:30 p.m. – 6 p.m Tours of Lincoln Hall
Wednesday, Sept. 13
3 p.m – 5 p.m. Tours of Lincoln Hall
5 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Reception in Lincoln Hall Reading Room, *Must RSVP to Allison Dahl at (605) 697.7475, or [email protected]
7 p.m., Woster Celebration Hall: Keynote Event: And Evening with Ambassador Laurie Fulton
