Collegiate Times

centerNorrishall

After over half a year of extensive renovations, Norris Hall's front wing will hold a reopening ceremony April 10 and an open house for the public on the second anniversary of the April 16 shootings.

"The space has been really transformed. It's hard for me to even recognize the way the original classrooms were," said Jerzy Nowak, director of the Center of Peace Studies of Violence Prevention and widower of Jocelyn Couture-Nowak, a French instructor killed on April 16.

The center will share the 4,300-square feet of space with the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics.

"It still will be emotional for many of us to move there, but I think the center to fulfill its role as a healing process has to be located in Norris; it's a symbolic place," Nowak said.

Friday's reopening ceremony will include opening remarks by Charles Steger, president, Mark McNamee, provost, Ishwar Puri, ESM department head, and Nowak, who will then lead a tour of the floor. On April 16, the public will have a chance to visit Norris Hall for an open house from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The interior has been completely rearranged, with partitioning walls being either shifted or completely removed. Classrooms have been eliminated to make way for more specialized areas such as small conference rooms and laboratories.

"It was very swift, actually. I have to admit that I thought it would take more, a year-and-a-half, and it's been only six months," Nowak said.

"I'm really pleased how it turned out," said Mark McNamee, university provost. "It's beautifully designed, (and) the peace center and the engineering department program are going to create a great place for students to do their work."

The Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention will relocate from 101 Wallace Hall to Norris Hall by the end of the month.

"There's a certain level of expectation from the victims, injured students, victim families, and the community, that there would be some sort of a long-term commemoration of this, not just once a year ... but an official memorial," Nowak said.

The upcoming move to Norris Hall will close the chapter on a long process, said Nowak. "The location at Norris Hall was our target ... One of our objectives is now to help the community in the healing process."

One of the center's major projects has been the development of a "Global Technology Hub," a state-of-the-art videoconferencing center financed by a grant from the Department of Education. It will be based in the new space.

"The idea is to create cross-disciplinary opportunities for students to interact," Nowak said. "We have to reach students and faculty and create sort of a global community against violence ... and potentially share resources, communicate."

The center was established in the aftermath of the April 16 shootings and focuses on violence prevention programs as well as several peace studies initiatives.

A new Students for Non-Violence Club tries to draw in direct student involvement in the center's stated missions and goals. "We believe that to really make change, it has to come from students," said Leah Wickham, club vice president. "Students have to want to change the atmosphere on their campus."

This semester, the club is focusing on raising awareness though "Pennies for Peace" campaign that aims to raise $50,000 to build, staff, and operate a new school in Afghanistan or Pakistan for five years. Greg Mortenson, who started the project, will visit Tech on April 15 to share his experience with the campus.

"It seems like a huge goal," Wickham said, "but ... it would only take $1.77 per person to raise $50,000" if every student participated. Greg Mortenson will visit Tech on April 15 to share the project on campus.

Violence prevention also means outreach to diverse areas. "We're working to educate ... as an indirect approach to violence prevention in areas that are experiencing some hard times," said Jill Casten, a graduate assistant at the center. In a Halifax County juvenile detention center, for example, the center teaches individuals professional skills as a way to obtaina job and cut down on future violence.