Grover Center set to be finished by end of May

by Kara McDonald
For The Post

Grover Center has been through many changes.

The center, built in 1960, is about to become home to the College of Health and Human Services after its use as Ohio University's basketball arena until the completion of The Convo in 1968. It also housed what is now the School of Recreation and Sport Sciences' facility.

Grover Center renovations are set to be finished by the end of this month. OU closed the building at the start of Spring Quarter 1999 and had planned to finish the project by January 2001, according to an April 23, 1999 Post article.

"Completion is a process, not a moment – September has always been the target date and we're on schedule for that," said Pam Callahan, OU director of capital planning.

Grover Center still will open for classes in Fall Quarter 2001, said Gary Neiman, dean of the College of Health and Human Services. The college's faculty members will begin moving in this spring and summer.

The college uses seven different campus locations, including the Research and Technology Center, at Richland Avenue and President Street, Neiman said.

OU sophomore Alicia Ghiz, a therapeutic recreation major, said she is eager to leave R-Tech and start classes in Grover.

"R-Tech is hot and uncomfortable, so I can't wait for Grover to be completed," she said. "It's going to be really nice for all the majors in Health and Human Services to be together in one place."

Grover Center features a three-story atrium with skylights, a 40-person dining room that will offer breakfast and lunch, classrooms and various labs, Neiman said. It also will have a two-court gymnasium for recreation classes and a hallway connecting the building to the Aquatic Center.

"Being under one roof will allow us to all interact and get to know each other," he said. "And that's part of Health and Human Services - interacting with others, both in your field and outside it."

Callahan said the building has no traditional front door but has two entrances on its east and west sides, because most students will approach Grover Center from these sides.

Ohio passed a capital improvements bill in December of 1998 that made renovations possible, according to a Jan. 5, 1999 Post article. This bill awarded OU about $38 million for campus improvements, $24.5 million of which was spent on Grover Center.

The building's size has increased from 90,000 square feet to about 186,000 square feet, Neiman said.