Facilities

In September 1993 the F.W. Olin Foundation announced a $6-million gift to Luther for the construction of a new economics and business, mathematics, and computer science building, which was dedicated at Homecoming 1995.

Today, most computer science classes are held in the 43,000-square-foot Olin Building, which contains 33 faculty offices, four networked computer labs, 10 computer classrooms, a 137-seat auditorium/lecture hall, a large seminar room, a student study center, and conference/interview rooms. Access to the labs is free for students and available 16 or more hours per day.

Classrooms are designed to be flexible to encourage interaction between faculty and students and the formation of small study groups.

The advanced technological facilities in Olin offer students an opportunity to develop comprehensive and competitive computer skills in conjunction with knowledge in their disciplines.

The Round Table Room, on Olin's third floor, features a network of 25 computer-based participant stations and one facilitator station, enabling concurrent and immediate sharing of ideas and information. The computers are used interactively by people working at separate workstations. The result is a blend of traditional across-the-table talk and electronic brainstorming, issue-analysis, commenting, assessment, prioritizing, and report writing.

The software—Facilitate.com—supports processes such as building agendas, developing surveys, and brainstorming, categorizing, prioritizing, and voting on ideas. It is used widely by educational, nonprofit, and corporate organizations around the world.