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KANSAN.COM
NEWS
New science building to focus on oil, gas research
KATIE BERNARD
@KatieJBernard15
Construction continues on the new Slawson Building. The Earth, Energy and Environment Center is projected to be finished. bv 2018
Baxter Schanze/KANSAN
The Earth, Energy and Environment Center which opens in spring 2018, will bring together the fields of geology and petroleum engineering.
The new buildings, which received large portions of funding from individuals in the oil and gas industry, will be the new home for the departments of geology and petroleum engineering and, although it will be available for use by other programs, will not house the environmental studies program according to Bob Goldstein, associate dean for natural sciences. Research in the building will focus largely on the intersections of the two fields, much of which is related to oil and gas.
Goldstein said that the collaboration opportunities provided by the building will allow for better research.
"The whole building is about integration, getting people who work on the energy side of things to work side by side with the people who work on the environment side of things," Goldstein said. "It'll be a tremendous mix."
The new research will take place in the new buildings Slawson Hall and Ritchie Hall. Lindley Hall, the current geology and environmental studies building, will be considered part of the complex and will be connected to Ritchie Hall by a covered walkway.
Maija Gierhart, a sophomore studying geology, says the building is in need of an
upgrade because it is overcrowded and outdated.
"[Lindley] is one of the worst buildings on campus," Gierhart said.
The research in Ritchie and Slawson will include studies on oil extraction, preservation of groundwater resources and geothermal energy. Some of this research will be done by the Tertiary Oil Recovery Program.
Goldstein said that the research done by this program is particularly important to Kansas.
"If you look at the economy of the state of Kansas, the top two things are energy and agriculture," Goldstein said. "They help the oil companies find more ways to get the oil out of the ground."
He also said it was fitting that so much research in regards to the oil and gas industry would be done in the new buildings as they are named after donors from the industry. Slawson Hall was named for Don Slawson, the recently deceased founder of Slawson Companies. Scott and Carol Ritchie of Ritchie Explorations are the namesake of Ritchie Hall. Both companies are oil and gas exploration companies based out of Wichita.
"It made a huge difference having two major donations coming from two prominent families in Kansas both of
which rely on things relating to energy and environment," Goldstein said. "So it's kind of fitting that they have their names on the buildings."
In addition to classrooms, research space and faculty offices, Slawson and Ritchie Hall will have a large outreach center for speakers and conferences, the Robert M. Beren Petroleum Center. The center is an open area that Goldstein said he hopes encourages industry partners to come to the University.
"We wanted to make our campus really welcoming to the rest of the world," Goldstein said. "So it includes a bunch of facilities for industry partners to come in here,
spend a little time with us, work with our students and it will allow them to come and take part in big meetings."
Environmental studies student Alex Kohlenberg worries that the inclusion of the word "environment" in the title of the complex is misleading, considering the focus on the oil and gas industry.
"It is, I think, an intentional misnomer to call it the Earth, Energy and Environment center to mislead people about its purpose," Kohlenberg said.
He said that the name of the complex is particularly concerning because the practices being researched are
potentially damaging to the environment and that these concerns are shared within the department.
"Those buildings are for petroleum engineering which has a pretty significant negative environmental impact," Kohlenberg said.
Goldstein said the new buildings and resources will be accessible to the environmental studies program which will remain in Lindley Hall. He said ultimately the decision to place geology and petroleum engineering in Slawson and Ritchie had a lot to do with space as well as the donors.
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