Spring 2003

More than a Roof and Four Walls

Stern Hall Opens Doors for Collaborative Learning

by Catherine Williams

Construction of Stern Hall is expected to be complete by June, 2003. With only a couple of months left before faculty move into the new building, excitement is growing. A generous lead gift from Trustee Herbert J. Stern ’58, LL.D. ’74, P ’03 originally made it possible for the Colleges to consider this important addition to campus. Since then, other gifts have been pledged that will make an immediate and transformative impact on the Colleges’ ability to educate our students. One of the hallmarks of a Hobart and William Smith education is the opportunity for students and faculty to work collaboratively. Stern Hall has been specifically designed to enable those collaborative relationships. There are currently dozens of spaces in Stern Hall that require funding, spaces that will generate aggressive academic rigor in the education of future generations. The following example of a funding opportunity is indicative of the outcomes possible through a gift to Stern Hall.

Student Research Room
This room, located on the third floor of Stern Hall, will give students a permanent space to study and store materials. “The problem with Trinity Hall now is that we need to share our offices with students performing research with us,” says Assistant Professor of Economics Thomas Drennen. As a result, faculty members who wish to use their offices in private or for conferences with other students are often forced to eject their student researcher from their office. Drennen says, “In my opinion, the solution is not to send students to the library to work. They need to be nearby so we can share ideas.”

By giving a gift for the Student Research Room, a donor will create opportunities for active participation that will result in students who are passionately engaged in their studies.

Jennifer Rosthal is a senior economics major who spent last summer working with Drennen on energy models. “For my honors thesis, I’m building a computer model that compares the processes used to produce hydrogen [a potentially clean and sustainable energy source] and calculating the economic outcomes of those options,” she says. “Some theorists claim that coal could be the cheapest way to produce hydrogen, even given the costs associated with sequestering the resulting carbon. My model will allow the user to change the variables and determine the cost impact.”

This may sound familiar; it’s the same type of research promoted by President George W. Bush in his January, 2003 State of the Union Address. “My students and I are figuring out how to move us away from gasoline to hydrogen fuel cars,” Drennen says. “We think big here.”

The emphasis is on we. Rosthal says, “We are constantly talking about what we’re working on. The accessibility of Professor Drennen has been the key to my work.”

Junior economics major Jenna Pugliese also spent last summer working with Drennen. “At the end of the summer, Professor Drennen asked me to compile everything I could find on hydrogen,” she says. “I was excited when I signed up for his Environmental Economics seminar and discovered that we would be using one of the texts I found.”

Like Rosthal, Pugliese has benefited from the close contact with Drennen. “My friends think I’m a nerd,” she says, laughing. “I talk about economics all the time but it’s because what we’re working on is potentially the future.”

Rosthal agrees. “Basically, the work I’m doing could determine the pathway the nation takes with hydrogen.”