Hendrix College has a new pride and joy. It's a $26 million facility and the second most expensive building in Conway. The square footage is 71,200.
Student Katie Rice laughs, "I've thought about failing some classes just to stick around and enjoy the buildings."
The Student Life and Technology Center is a one-of-a-kind in Arkansas with eight technology clusters. If you want to check your e-mail or watch movies, there's no problem.
"We were pulling up some Youtube videos earlier with, like, dance music and you can turn up the music real loud," explains Rice.
Another favorite is video conferencing rooms for meeting with students from across the world. Matthew Lee guides students on how to present their work with the latest video editing software.
He says, "All of them have some sort of need to put it in their studies and work with the new technology."
With only about 1,500 students, Hendrix is certainly setting itself apart from larger schools like the U of A, UCA, and UALR.
Karla Carney-Hall is the vice president for student affairs. She explains, "That commitment is to being a premiere liberal arts college that is really unparalleled in our commitment to engage learning. Our commitment to being student centered."
Four years ago, Hendrix started the Capital Campaign with the goal of raising $100 million by the end of 2010 for their building and academic projects. They've almost reached that goal with $93 million raised.
Social needs are also taken care off here with a new dining facility and concert hall. Practically everything, minus classrooms is under one roof; including most offices which used to be spread out across campus.
Rice says, "It is just so nice to see they way that it is growing. I mean I am really proud of the college."
Source: Today's THV & Hendrix College