College Building set to reopen September 6

Facilities Planner Chris Bergen, right, explains the refurbishing of Convocation Hall to alumni from the College of Agriculture class of 1943, during a tour of the renovated College Building that was part of the annual Alumni Reunion, June 23-25. More than 200 alumni from 1928-44, 1945, 1950, 1955, 1960 and 1965 took part in the reunion weekend.

Photo by Lawrence McMahen

After eight years of enforced vacancy due to structural weakness, and a major two-year $21-million renovation, the College Building is about to resume its position as the centrepiece on campus.

Plans are underway for an official reopening and rededication of the 93-year-old building on Sept. 6, with a number of related celebratory events to be held there through the week of Sept. 5-12.

U of S Global Relations Co-ordinator Rob Norris, one of the week’s organizers, says the events will likely include:

SEPT. 5: Student registration for Orientation.
SEPT. 6: Official Opening and Rededication of the College Building, in Convocation Hall; tours; launch of a new book on the history of Saskatchewan by Prof. Bill Waiser.
SEPT. 7: Tours; a musical event in Convocation Hall produced by the Music Department.
SEPT. 8: Tours; a scholarly lecture on the process of renewal.
SEPT. 9: Tours; opening of an exhibit of Allan Sapp artworks, in the gallery space.
SEPT. 10: Tours; a musical event featuring the University’s Amati Quartet in Residence, in Convocation Hall.
SEPT. 11: A tour and lecture on the memorial legacy of the College Building by Prof. Emeritus of History Michael Hayden featuring the terra-cotta wall monuments honouring the University’s dead and wounded in the First World War.
SEPT. 12: Tour; lecture by a scholar from Great Britain on synchrotron science and archaeology.

Norris adds faculty and staff will likely be able to take advance tours of the building in August.

He says the celebration is intended to help put the College Building and its Convocation Hall “back into the public consciousness” as a focal point of campus and of the larger community. “As a destination, the College Building is one of the foremost public buildings in Saskatchewan.”

For more information, contact communications.office@usask.ca

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