Science Hall - Missituk Campus
Constructed in 1859, then rebuilt in 1899, Science Hall stands three stories high, with hot and stuffy offices pushed into the garret another floor higher. The first floor and basement are occupied by large lecture halls and the School of Biology. The Schools of the Physical and the Natural Sciences and the department of Mathematics share floors two and three, and they all share portions of Tyner Annex, together with the new School of Applied Sciences.
Astor Department of Mathematics: so called after receiving a long series of contributions and endowments from Benjamin and Athena Astor.
Dr. Hiram Upham chairs the department, which also supports three associate professors, four graduate assistants, and a secretary in a sumptuous style envied by every other faculty member on campus. The department is not large enough to be a school, but since its funding is independent, it has equivalent freedom and prestige.
The department is pleased to provide mathematical liaison with other departments, but its creative impulses curve toward topology and extra-dimensional explorations.
School of the Physical Sciences: essentially the departments of chemistry and physics, aiming to give every undergraduate a sound education; upper division and graduate classes explode in many directions, from the implications of quantum theory to the synthesis of exciting new hydrocarbon compounds.
The Dean of the School of Physical Science is Dr. W.E. Cameron, 48. Dr. Archibald Greely, 62, takes special pleasure in guiding courses such as quantitative and qualitative analysis which are often geared to pre-med students. Dr. Harold Shear heads the Chemistry department.
Professor Donald Atwood, a physicist turned meteorologist who really should be in the School of Natural Sciences, has recently been chosen to participate in the upcoming second Missituk expedition to the Antarctic.
School of Life Sciences: in 1954 this large department transformed from the School of Biology. Areas of emphasis include anatomy, general biology, some biochemistry, botany, zoology, animal behavior, and human psychology. The head of the school is Dr. Conrad Miller, 58 years old.
Among the staff is 31-year-old Professor Percy Lake who is slated for the forthcoming expedition to the Antarctic.
The botanists operate a small greenhouse attached to the south side of the building. One, 50-year-old Professor Robert Angley, raised eyebrows with his active opposition to the Pierce Reservoir project. Angley used the arguments of altered ecologies and endangered species, although those concepts lack the supporting evidence available later in the century.
Assistant Professor Alex Warden presses radical proposals such as mass parapsychological screening, much to the faculty's amusement and aggravation. Warden, unknown to anyone, belongs to the Eye of Amara Society.
Wingate Paisley, son of economist Nathaniel Wingate Paisley, was the only member of the elder Paisley's family to not desert the man after his strange psychological attacks. His father's problems led young Wingate, in his early thirties, into psychology. He owns his own plane and keeps it stored in the hangar of the New Jerusalem Airport.
School of Applied Sciences: headquartered in the new Charles Tyner Laboratory Annex, the Dean is Dr. Lawrence Abbott, an engineer by training. The school represents his ambitious dream of a science fully interactive with modern society.
Dominant among the disciplines are engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, and metallurgy.
Metallurgist Dr. Dewart Ellery tested and failed to identify the metal in a statuette found during the demolition of the Witch House and held by the University since the 1930s. This mysterious piece remains in the University Exhibit Museum.
In engineering, the rising star is Frank H. Pabodie, who is presently running final tests on a powerful new drill of his own radical design. The drill will take geological core samples during the upcoming Antarctic expedition. He has also designed fuel-warming and quick-start devices for the airplanes they are taking with them.
Faculty member Professor Woodbridge, 36, has spent time with Robert Goddard, the liquid-fuel-rocket proponent. Woodbridge occasionally launches experimental rockets from a field south of town.
Electrical engineer Dr. Hamlin Hayes, a young man despite his thin white hair, is presently developing special storage batteries better-resistant to the intense cold of the Antarctic.
School of Natural Sciences: an experimental grouping of disciplines like geology, paleogeology, paleontology, astronomy, ethnography, oceanography, and meteorology. Some, such as geology, are full-fledged disciplines; others, like oceanography, are the merest shadows of what they will become.
The head of the school is Dr. William Dyer, 50 years old, also the leader of the upcoming Antarctic expedition.
Dr. Morris Billings, 28, is the University's token astronomer, teaching two observational and two theoretical astronomical courses each semester and helping out the Physical Sciences people with a course there in ballistics. The department owns a well-mounted eight-inch reflector that is kept in the athletic field house, and Billings is keen to get a five-inch refractor for planetary and lunar observation. He founded and leads the New Jerusalem Astronomical Society, featuring field trips as nature allows and occasional lectures.
Campus Physician: Dr. Cecil Waldron is 69-years old and originally from Boston. He runs the campus infirmary, a job suitable for a semi-retired man, and has an infirmary and office in the basement of Science Hall.
Doc Waldron administers aspirin and takes care of sprains, cuts, minor skin rashes, and other matters unsuitable for St. Mary's receiving (emergency) room.
Maps
-
Science Hall
Founding Date
1859 then rebuilt in 1899
Type
University / Educational complex
Parent Location
Owning Organization
Comments