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Embry-Riddle Opens New Multi-Purpose Academic Complex

Prescott, Ariz., Jan. 3, 2005 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will dedicate its new 48,000- square-foot Academic Complex on Wednesday, Jan. 12, with the release of a weather balloon, live music from the university jazz band, and tours of the new facility.

The event will take place from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on the Prescott campus. At approximately 5:15 p.m., faculty and students from Applied Meteorology, one of the programs located in the facility, will launch a weather balloon from atop the new building. The demonstration will show how the balloon measures upper-air temperature, wind, and barometric pressure.

Embry-Riddle’s newest building is a three-story structure that houses lecture halls, computer laboratories, classrooms, and a high-tech meteorology suite complete with a weather observation pad on the roof. The building also includes 76 faculty offices, academic deans’ suites, and conference rooms.

The classrooms and laboratories are designed for technologically advanced teaching techniques such as cooperative, problem-based, Web-based, and computer-based learning.

“The opening of the first phase of the Academic Complex is an important part of Embry-Riddle’s future,” said Dan Carrell, chancellor of the Prescott campus. “This building makes state-of-the-art labs and classrooms available to our students, demonstrating Embry-Riddle’s commitment to providing the very best aviation and aerospace education possible in the world today.”

Carrell added that the presence of faculty offices in the classroom building promotes student-faculty interaction and creates an academic-community environment.

The Academic Complex will serve as an anchor for the future academic core of the Prescott campus as envisioned in the Prescott Campus Master Plan. The new building launches the modernization of the campus, a process that will include the replacement of older buildings.

Construction crews are already preparing the ground for the next building phase. A high-bay engineering laboratory and a new visitor center will open on the campus in 2005. Also on the horizon, a new entrance to the university will take shape on Willow Creek Road.

The 20,414-square-foot engineering lab will contain Aerospace Engineering teaching equipment. The visitor center, slated at 13,555 square feet, will be the “front door” to the campus, housing the chancellor’s office, Admissions, Financial Aid, Development, Alumni Relations, and Public Relations.

Embry-Riddle, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business and Engineering and meets the needs of students and industry through its educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Embry-Riddle educates more than 30,000 students annually through the master level at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Extended Campus at more than 130 teaching centers in the United States and Europe, and worldwide through distance learning.