Belk Library will receive a $5 million upgrade following a gift from two Elon University parents. The addition will consolidate the offices of academic advising, tutoring and disability services into one building. The expansion will be a two-story, 11,000-square-foot annex on the east side of the Carol Grotnes Belk library.
Construction on the addition is scheduled to begin in late August and be completed by fall 2018. Features inside the annex will include an "assistive technology lab", a conference room, and 18 new testing rooms that will be available for students to study or work on group projects in the evenings
The addition will be named the "Koenigsberger Learning Center" after Robert and Dilek Koenigsberger, parents of 2017 Elon graduate Amber Koenigsberger, provided the funding for the project. Approximately $2.5 million of their $5 million gift will fund the construction of the center, and the remaining half will be held in an endowment to support annual operations of the center.
The Koenigsberger's gift is in line with a recent trend of Elon parents making large donations to fund new construction. The recently constructed Schar Hall and Steers Pavilion, and the planned Schar Center and Sankey Hall were all funded largely by donations from parents of current or recent students.
Currently, academic advising and disability services are located in Duke Building, and tutoring services are housed in Belk Library. The new learning center aims to put them under one roof.
“Having the Koenigsberger Learning Center in Belk Library and close to career services will create a stellar service delivery model and help students be even more successful," said Becky Olive-Taylor, associate dean of academic support, in a press release. "It really is what seamless learning is all about, creating spaces around the campus that support a strong academic climate.”
The ten-minute parking lot behind Belk Library will be used by a contractor for staging during the duration of the project's construction, according to Brad Moore, university architect. After the addition is completed, the parking lot will re-open, but be slightly smaller.