GVSU Honors College Migration

Grand Valley State University Honors College students will take a moment on August 24 to honor the past and dream about the future in a ceremonial migration from the college’s old home to its new, state-of-the art green facility.

The Honors College is moving into the new Glenn A. Niemeyer Learning and Living Center on the Allendale Campus. Approximately 450 honors students will live and learn in this cutting edge facility. Administrators call it the optimal environment for motivating students to grow and develop skills on their ways to becoming leaders.

The facility is named for Glenn A. Niemeyer, who retired from Grand Valley in 2001 after 38 years of service. He was a pioneer faculty member and served as the university’s first provost from 1980-2001. Grand Valley’s former Honors College facility — which was also named for Niemeyer — housed about 250 students.

In honor of Monday’s beginning of a new academic year, students, faculty and staff will gather at the old Honors College building and, after some remarks and reminiscences of the learning that took place in the old facility, will process across campus to the new center. At the college’s new home, previous director Johnnie Callahan will give a brief history of the college and those present will take a group photo sign a banner that will be hung in the building’s entryway.

“We’re identifying with the past, but we are moving toward the future,” said Jeff Chamberlain, director of the Honors College. “There’s continuity and change within the same event. We’re going into a bigger and better future while still building on the past.”

The event begins at 2 p.m. at the old Niemeyer (now named North Living Center C) and is open to the public. The procession should arrive at the new building by 2:45, and the entire event should be finished by 3:30 p.m.

The new center features 187,000 square feet of residential space and another 41,000 square feet of academic space. It was designed and built meet LEED standards, which call for high performance and sustainability by maintaining standards for water and energy conservation, material selection and indoor environmental quality. It has a 70-seat case room, great room, science demonstration lab, listening room, reading room and two LearnLab classrooms, to name a few amenities. There are also 16 faculty, staff and clerical offices. Students will take a few classes each year in the Honors College facility.