Schools

RMU Opens New School of Communications

The Moon-based university will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the former Wayne Center on Sept. 20.

Classes are already underway in most recently completed facility—though the 50,000 square-foot building doesn't yet have a name. 

The former Wayne Center, which houses the university's growing School of Communications and Information Systems, opened with the fall semester, consolidating media arts, communications and computer information systems courses under one roof. 

The university will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 20, when it will reveal the building's new Colonial-inspired name. 

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"The university has a policy in place that when we have a new academic building it is named after a benefactor, if there is a benefactor," said Kyle Fischer, RMU vice president for public relations and marketing. "In this case, there is no benefactor."

So instead, RMU faculty will vote and select the renovated building's name, choosing from a list of pre-selected colonial-era leaders. Several of the campus' existing facilities bear the names of iconic American Revolution figures, such as its Hancock, Madison and Monroe halls. 

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The building was constructed around the one-story Wayne Center. RMU recently closed its downtown Pittsburgh building that served as its media arts center.

Though the building primarily houses communication-based courses, Fischer described the building as a "melting pot," where students of all majors will study. 

"It's very important and productive to get all of those diverse disciplines housed in that one building," Fischer said. "It leads to very powerful collaboration, both for professors and teachers, as well as the students." 

The overhauled building is a part of ongoing growth at the Moon-based institution, which was founded in Pittsburgh but purchased land in Moon Township in the early 1960s. 

RMU opened the six-story  dormitory in the fall of 2011 and plans a 2013 opening for the, which will house life science disciplines. The university also bought the

"People are just thrilled to be there," Fischer said of the new communications building. "Students and teachers alike. It's just so exciting." 


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