Over the decades since 1912, the footsteps of thousands of learners have echoed through the hallways of Gordy Hall. Rather than dwindling with age during the passing years, the elderly building has gained in stature and substance. The building first housed the University Training School, which provided teacher training in elementary school agriculture, nature study, geography, physical geography, biology, and physics. The School of Music had occupancy from the late 1920s until it moved to a new facility in 1970. At that time the Department of Philosophy took up residence, and the building was renamed after John P. Gordy, first principal of the normal department and a popular lecturer on U.S. history and psychology.
Charles Mickelson, director of the Ohio Program of Intensive English (OPIE), which has been housed in Gordy since 1967, described the original building:
Although there were offices and classrooms on the first floor, there was also a large auditorium which took up two stories. The third-floor space, which was a U-shape, covered only a small part of the second-floor roof. Now the building footprint is a little more than double the original building, but the usable space is quite a bit more than that. By excavating into the hillside, the builders were able to put in the ground floor area for labs without too much extra expense, so we now have four fully utilized floors.
The renovation began in 1996 and cost $11.2 million, with $225,000 coming from the
College of Arts and Sciences and the balance from the state of Ohio. The doors
opened for classes in fall quarter 1998. The building has completely new classrooms,
offices, and lounge areas, as well as state-of-the-art computer and language
laboratories. The exterior renovation features a vast expanse of curved windows
and a matching broad, curving staircase entrance on the south side of the building.
Gone is the forty-five-year-old natatorium building, which was razed to make room
for the expansion and to replace parking places gobbled up by the new building.
But the most important aspect of the new facility is the first-ever joining of all the language units. Former tenants, the Department of Linguistics and OPIE, are now joined by the Department of Modern Languages (which previously was in Ellis Hall) and the Office of Education Abroad (a combination of two former entities, the College of Arts and Sciences Study Abroad Office and the general student study abroad responsibilities of the Center for International Studies). The Department of Philosophy moved out of Gordy as renovation began and will eventually be housed in Ellis Hall with other humanities departments, English and Classics.
Richard McGinn, associate professor and chair of the Department of Linguistics, said his department is especially happy about the new association with modern languages and the Office of Education Abroad, as well as continuing to share the building with OPIE. "The planners wanted us to be involved, because it was going to be our building. The idea of a thematic language building was first suggested by the faculty, and soon the concept just took on a life of its own. Even the artwork has a language theme."
Dr. McGinn said that English as a foreign language is his department's "main product," while Swahili, Indonesian, Chinese, and Japanese are also taught. French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian are taught by modern languages instructors. "A student studying Spanish may meet a student studying Swahili and learn for the first time that that language is taught here," Dr. McGinn said. "Some students may not even realize there is a difference in the departments. A student could take Chinese and French and, to the student, one class is on the third floor and the other is on the second floor."
Dr. McGinn said he especially appreciates the new environment in Gordy. "I've been with the Department of Linguistics since 1977 and spent seventeen years in a windowless office in Gordy right next to the auditorium, which was used as a practice room by the OU marching band. The band would practice every day at 4 p.m. And at 4 p.m. the faculty went home--we didn't need to hear the band play every day!" Dr. McGinn's new quiet third-floor office has expansive windows with a sweeping southern view of campus. He said the fourteen linguistics faculty members have expressed "a universal acceptance.
We had some professional contact with Modern Languages Department faculty in the past but nothing like now. One of the major opportunities now is sharing guest speakers--it's much easier to attend each other's events and the departments' faculties will benefit from each others' speakers. The departments are really growing together--technology, in part, has brought them together. For example, we all share the language labs.Our program is very much interested in making use of technology, both in our master's program and in our language teaching. Computerizing Japanese and Chinese has only been accomplished recently because it takes a tremendous amount of computer memory to handle the thousands of complex symbols in the languages. But now all the languages we teach on a regular basis are in the computers.
The Language Resource Center consists of a large independent study computer lab, a classroom computer lab, a classroom audio lab, an independent study audio lab, a faculty development room, a recording studio, a video editing room, and a classroom for observation. The computer labs incorporate the latest in technology. Forty-three Power Macintoshes in the independent study lab have video-editing capability for multimedia projects. All computers in this lab are connected to a video server which enables the students to view and control video and audio programs located on the server.
C.P. Richardson, associate professor of modern languages and director of the language laboratories, noted that now
we have a classroom computer lab open during the day for classes and the independent study computer lab open seventy-two hours a week--at least forty more hours than when we were in Ellis....The audio labs--which are being used heavily--also have all new equipment, as well as being much more comfortable. Many students who study languages like to go to lab before or after class to listen to tapes.
Mr. Richardson, who developed the first computer lab in Ellis in the 1980s and has worked with the audio labs since 1964, helped plan the purchase of the lab equipment. He described some the high-technology features.
The new video server for the computer labs has enormous capabilities. It will hold 370 hours of video, which students will be able to access from the server from any of seventy-two stations. In Ellis we had five VCRs and, therefore, could only make viewing assignments for smaller classes.
The language labs have an instructor console with a built-in computer so the instructor can turn power on or off to all the audio tape decks and start, stop, and rewind tapes. Student headphones allow interaction with the instructor.
An instructor can listen to a student pronounce a word, in German for example, and the instructor can respond and say, "Pronounce it this way." We don't need to disturb other students. We can automatically pair students up so they can talk to each other, or the instructor can join in the conversation.
Students can use individual cassettes or a master cassette can be run from the
instructor's console. Besides teaching the foreign languages methods classes
to students, Mr. Richardson conducts workshops to teach faculty members
how to use the new equipment, including an internally controlled, professional-quality
recording studio where instructors can make their own recordings.
Yet another classroom computer lab, with twenty stations, is used exclusively for OPIE students. OPIE assists international students with learning to communicate more effectively in English. Mr. Mickelson said he, the chairs of the Departments of Linguistics and Modern Languages, and the languages lab director meet frequently to talk over uses of common space and discuss any problems with the facilities. He added that OPIE students have an opportunity to mingle with other students in the building: "The commons room, where students can relax, have lunch, and watch TV is a good meeting place for students to learn about others' language studies."
Maria Dolores Morillo, a Spanish graduate student from Spain, is a teaching assistant for the Department of Modern Languages.
I used to love Ellis, but now that we're here, it's so much better. As a student I like it because I can go downstairs to the computer lab and do my own papers. As an instructor I can use my computer from my own office to prepare students' assignments. We have a good language lab with a lot of resources. It makes sense for modern languages to be together with OPIE and linguistics because those three branches are interconnected--we can share activities concerning the study and teaching of language.
Mary Jane Kelley, associate professor and chair of the Department of Modern Languages, said having languages under one roof, "gives us a real identity as a unit."
We've learned a lot about the other programs since we moved in. Having a new space as attractive as this is raises the morale among faculty and students--it gives students more respect for what they are doing in the building.... It's also helpful having the Office of Education Abroad in the building. When students inquire about opportunities to study abroad, we just send them downstairs.
Connie Perdreau, director of the Office of Education Abroad, agreed the move to Gordy Hall has had a profound influence on the activities of her reorganized office. The office features a student information and advising center for all Ohio University students interested in study, work, volunteer, or internship opportunities abroad. "Since the fall quarter began, the number of individual student office visits more than quadrupled from fall quarter 1997, going from 485 to 2,091," Ms. Perdreau said.
The added space in our offices has greatly aided us in accommodating the many references books, videos, and work areas necessary for us to expand the scope of our focus to other forms of international experiences, including research, data collection, volunteer, work, and internship options, as well as counseling students about study and work abroad opportunities. In addition, with the added availability of classroom space, we can conduct group advising sessions on topics of interest to a large numbers of students. Prospective students, visitors to campus, and university faculty and staff are encouraged to stop by and get to know us and what we offer to the field of international education.