Roosevelt Science Center Renovation Provides Enhanced Spaces and Equipment for Students and Faculty

The Roosevelt Science Center (RSC) at Eastern New Mexico University was recently completed and is scheduled to have a grand opening on Tuesday, October 1. These $22.5 million renovations included $16 million in funding from the 2018 and 2020 General Obligation Bond 3, which provides funding for improving college campuses across New Mexico. With the money awarded from the General Obligation Bond, the RSC will have brand new state-of-the-art science labs, modern technology, and equipment improving the overall quality of research and hands-on learning for students at ENMU.

Biology Department Chair and Physiology Professor Dr. Matthew Barlow hopes that the new renovations will enhance the STEM programs that ENMU has to offer, as well as provide excitement surrounding the new spaces. The amount of space that each faculty member in this department has is unique compared to any other institution," Barlow said. It is rare to not share a lab with another professor."

Dr. Manuel Varela, a professor of biology, has 12 individual lab benches for undergraduate and graduate students. That's the thing about this building, students can do research as an undergraduate which will help them to get accepted to graduate school," Varela said. Students at ENMU will receive hands-on lab experiences that were not available before the renovation.

The new facilities in the RSC will increase the amount of research being done in the biomedical field, including research on vaccines, cancers, infectious diseases, and genetic diseases, facilitating entry into those fields of study. Our students are able to take the foundation that we have provided for them and use those fundamentals to make the world better," Varela said.

Updates to the RSC provide the most modern technology and equipment necessary for students to have successful careers in their fields of study. You have to keep updated, keeping up with the new technology and the new areas of science," Varela said. More reliable lab equipment means faster and more accurate research. Graduate students Matthew Ayitah and Ebenezer Aborah are looking forward to the graduate spaces in the RSC. Better facilities contribute to enhanced teaching and learning," Ayitah said.

The RSC will have a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, allowing students to examine a material's molecular structure, which allows chemistry students to have more up-to-date techniques. The RSC will also have pure water hooked up directly to the labs, which is an important aspect of microbiology. The RSC will have a new computer center, including a program called ArcGIS, where students can update their fieldwork and map their progress. Equipment updates will also include new supercomputers where students can work with bioinformatics. Both the lab spaces and new equipment benefit students and faculty. That is what you find at Eastern more than anything, especially in the sciences, most of our equipment we get has to be dual purpose," Barlow said. It can't just be for our [faculty] research."

Eastern New Mexico University was able to fund the renovation of the Roosevelt Science Center through the help of voters like you. By turning over the ballot and voting on the general obligation bond, ENMU has a new science center. This fall, there is another general obligation bond on the ballot. This bond will not raise taxes, will add 2300 new jobs to the state of New Mexico, and will provide the ENMU system $10.3 million to continue our student success mission. On November 5, turn over the ballot and vote on Bond 3 for higher education, for more information visit https://www.investinbond3.com.