Montclair State University students will have a new science building as soon as 2028, according to Montclair State President Jonathan Koppell. Koppell announced this in a budget presentation he held on April 4 and elaborated on the plan more in a meeting with campus media organizations on April 19.
The new science building, which would replace Webster Hall, will provide more lab space for STEM students in different schools and colleges, such as the College for Science and Mathematics (CSAM), the School of Nursing, the College for Community Health and more.
Koppell explained how the addition of this building is a reflection of Montclair State’s goals as an institution.
“It underscores our commitment to offering top-notch opportunities to students who attend Montclair State University and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to accommodate students who want to major in STEM fields or related fields simply because we ran out of space,” Koppell said. “That would be to me a failure to meet our mission.”
Funding from the building comes from the state government, which gave Montclair State a total of $69 million to put towards STEM-related projects. Nine million dollars has already been spent on improving Montclair State wifi, while the other $60 million will go towards the construction of this new lab building.
During the April 4 budget presentation, Koppell explained the terms of the funding, describing how Montclair State received the most amount of money out of all the schools that were included in this deal. Out of the $60 million, Montclair State must pay interest on $20 million.
Construction for the new building is set to start in the fall 2024 semester and the building is planned to be operational in fall 2028.
Lora Billings, the dean of the College for Science and Mathematics (CSAM), said that the construction of the new building would serve the growing number of students in CSAM.
“The new interdisciplinary science building will provide a critically needed expansion of the university’s teaching and research capacity in the sciences,” Billings said. “Enrollment in the College of Science and Mathematics is up almost 15% since 2020 and we now welcome new freshmen classes of over 900 students. This investment will allow Montclair [State] to continue to educate a talented, diverse STEM workforce while maintaining its commitment to our longstanding values- success, access, innovation, social justice, sustainability and community.”
