W&L to Launch Construction of $13.5 Million Center for Global Learning
Construction of a new $13.5 million Center for Global Learning at Washington and Lee University has received final approval from the university’s board of trustees and is scheduled to begin the last week of May. Completion of the final phase of the center depends on completing the remaining $1.5 million of the fundraising goal.
The facility, connecting 8,600 renovated square feet of existing duPont Hall with 17,700 square-feet in a new building, will house classrooms, seminar rooms and instructional labs. It will feature an atrium, garden, courtyard and international tea shop to encourage student and faculty interaction and provide a venue for special events and exhibits.
In addition to learning and public spaces, the center will contain several language departments, offices for visiting international scholars and the Office of International Education.
Groundbreaking technologies planned for the center will connect Washington and Lee with other students and faculty around the world and at its university partners abroad.
The center will be the physical manifestation of the university’s strategic plan for international education, which reaches beyond the traditional study-abroad, internship and faculty research opportunities that already exist. Currently, almost half of the student body studies abroad or performs an international internship, research takes professors and students overseas, and students from 18 countries attend W&L.
Faculty development resources, funded by the continuing $500 million Honor Our Past, Build Our Future capital campaign, will encourage interdisciplinary approaches to global learning, foster cross-cultural knowledge, bring international scholars to campus to teach and conduct research, and integrate global learning into the education of all students.
