Northwestern State University will dedicate two buildings at the heart of its Natchitoches, La., campus today. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and state officials are scheduled to be in attendance when the university officially opens the newly-renovated Caspari Hall and the Student Services Center. Combined, these projects cost $12.1 million. They were funded through state surplus revenue five years ago. NSU president Randall Webb said his university was ready to start construction, which was a plus when the state considered what projects to fund.
“I think what they were doing at the time was probably identifying certain higher education projects that were close to what we might call shovel ready, and we had been working on ours for some time. So, we were ready to go if we could obtain the funding at the state level," Webb said.
Caspari Hall dates back to 1939 when it was a men’s athletic dormitory. It closed in 2003. It will be used for administrative offices and is adjacent to the new, three-story Student Services Center. Webb said he’s grateful to see these projects completed, but there is still a backlog of construction and renovation to be done at NSU, and he’s not alone.
“There is just tremendous amounts of work to be done on college campuses in Louisiana and elsewhere throughout the country," Webb said.
The ceremony is set for Wednesday, Sept. 4, at 2 p.m., and the event will include tours of the facilities, which were designed to better serve students by centralizing offices.
