A $4-million lecture hall will be built alongside the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine's new campus center, which is currently under construction.
Last weekend, the Trustees Administration and Finance Committee approved the construction of the 6,725-square-foot lecture hall, which will be able to accomodate a maximum capacity of 173.
The campus center and lecture hall will be named after Agnes Varis, who donated money to the project. Varis is the executive of two chemical companies and has donated to the Cummings School in the past.
"It's really through her help that we're able to visualize a dream that has existed on this campus for a long time," said Tom Keppeler, associate director of public relations for the Cummings School.
The campus center will have state-of-the-art electronics, acoustics and lighting, according to Keppeler. Construction of the campus center, which began in the fall, also involves renovations to a current campus building.
The lecture hall, meanwhile, will be built from scratch as an addition to this building. The lecture hall does not yet have a timetable for completion.
Construction on the campus center is slated for completion on May 16. It will have a lounge area, a study area, a dining facility, an exercise facility and space for 13 offices.
The school hopes to offer the lecture hall for community use by the surrounding towns of Grafton, Westborough and Shrewsbury. Upon completion, the new hall will be the largest lecture hall on campus.
"Currently our students don't have ideal facilities to gather and to study," Keppeler said. "There are facilities all over our campus but no real unified force."
Keppeler noted that the dining facility is operated out of a trailer and that the student bookstore is located on the first floor of an administration building.
"What this project enables us to do ... is give the community here on the campus of Cummings a cohesive place to meet, to study, to learn and to become much more of a campus community than we've ever seen before," Keppeler said.
The campus of the Cummings School was donated to Tufts University in 1976, and the Agnes Varis Campus Center will be the first such building on the campus.
