Animal teaching facility opens up opportunities

Today, Oregon State University will dedicate a new teaching and research facility for the department of animal sciences. The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new James E. Oldfield Animal Teaching facility will take place at 3 p.m., and the public is invited to attend.The new facility is located at the intersection of SW Campus Way and SW 35th Street. The ribbon-cutting ceremony will feature several notable speakers.

President Ed Ray, Provost Sabah Randhawa, Dr. John Killefer, the head of the department of animal and rangeland sciences and Dr. Jim Males, a former head of the department of animal and rangeland sciences, will speak."The main purpose is to better serve students," Killefer said of the Oldfield facility. "The Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences has nearly 500 majors fall quarter 2012 along with 60 minors. This represents a doubling of student numbers over the past 10 years," Killefer said.

The Oldfield Animal Teaching facility also represents an improvement over previous facilities."The previous facilities did not support the educational opportunities that our new facility provides," Killefer said.It is primarily undergraduates who will utilize the Oldfield facility. The new facility also brings improved lab and classroom space."The primary benefits of the new pavilion are to provide new spaces for teaching and research," said Larry Curtis, associate dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences. "It houses laboratories for 'hands on' undergraduate experiences with animals and facilities for faculty [and] graduate student research."