By By: Kate Luce
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Chancellor Susan Elrod announced that the former Purdue Polytechnic building would officially be named Parkside Hall on March 5. The building is tucked behind the Franklin D. Schurz Library.
The building used to be home to Purdue Polytechnic Institute, but this program began to move off of IU South Bend’s campus in December of 2019. The building, while owned by IU, has not seen much action since the Purdue school expanded its offerings to high school students and moved to downtown South Bend. Currently, campus facilities management is housed there.
“IU South Bend owns the building now known as Parkside Hall and previously leased the space to the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. As a result, it had been referred to as the Purdue Technology Building. The Purdue Polytechnic Institute was not a part of IU South Bend, but rather a tenant,” Paige Risser, Marketing and Communication Director, said.
Purdue Polytechnic Institute officially moved out of the space in June of 2020, making it possible to rename the building to something that better-reflected campus.
“The building is across from the city park area, inspiring its new name. The campus also has a history of naming buildings related to its surroundings. Our oldest building on campus is named Northside, so this name also fits with existing building names,” Risser said.
The official name change, however, took place in January 2021. The name was proposed by Chancellor Elrod and then to the IU President, Michael McRobbie. The proposal was accepted and officially approved in February 2021.
In 2018, news broke out that the building had to be closed due to findings of mold. According to former Director of Communications and Marketing, Ken Baieral, the mold was aspergillus/penicillium, which does not affect healthy people.
After replacing the entire HVAC system in a little over a week, the building has not had any issues with mold ever since.
As for now, there are no concrete plans for classes or other administration to head into the two-story building.
“…Our new campus strategic plan will address facilities planning. The plan is to establish a continuous review cycle for a campus space master plan and create a Campus Space Advisory Committee later this year,” Risser said.
To view the latest on IU South Bend’s strategic planning, visit https://www.iusb.edu/chancellor/strategic-planning/index.html.
