By Virginia You
Staff Writer

Being ranked ninth overall this year in the U.S. News and World Report's annual ranking of graduate school programs and being able to brag that notable persons have graduated from the school, Purdue's engineering departments deserve the building additions that they are planning.

"We've had enough astronauts graduate from here that it's about time that we get new additions," said John Rusek, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics.

Among the additions is a chemical engineering building addition at $15 million, an engineering research facility at $15 million and an engineering building and chiller plant at $57 million.

The chemical engineering department has a capital campaign being planned, so it is moving forward with its plan faster than the other groups.

"It's a wonderful idea because we've been stuffed in our building trying to hire more faculty and we couldn't," said Wayne Muench, director of instructional laboratories in chemical engineering. "Now we will have more space, which will enable (the different professors) to work together. It is also a great opportunity to beef up the department."

According to Tom Schmenk, director of facilities and construction, the chemical engineering department had to "go through the whole administration chain" to get its plan approved. The process involved the chemical engineering department announcing its need and pitching its ideas to the department heads, where it is looked at and sorted by priority.

Not only is the chemical engineering department affected by this 10-year plan but aeronautics, freshman engineering, materials engineering and industrial engineering will be moving as well. This will also beneficial to these departments.

"Everybody has to truck up the floor in a little building right now," said Rusek. "Anything that gives us more space is good."

The building plans are still uncertain, but in the chemical engineering building there will be new lecture halls with new technology. The architect is still undetermined but interviewing is in progress.

"We are interviewing architects in the Mid-East," said Wayne Kjonaas, vice president for physical facilities. "We're looking for someone who has already designed similar facilities at universities or industries."

According to the associate dean of engineering, Warren Stevensen, the original plan two years ago was to "improve facility and to be able to provide the ability to achieve our mission as we went into the new century."

After the two years, the goal is still similar.

"The overall goal is to provide us with the facility we need to be a world class engineering program in the 21st century," said Stevensen. "Technology is moving so fast and our facility has had no update for decades so we're behind. This is a very visionary plan to maintain strong reputation that Purdue has had in engineering."