Ross Bryant, Campus Carrier staff writer

Berry continues construction of the new animal science building behind McAllister, slated to be fully operational by next fall.
“Construction will complete in May 2021 and the building will be ready for occupancy and full use Fall semester 2021.” Director of Strategic Property Planning Todd Bradford said.
The building is an expansion to of Mac’s facilities, a much needed addition for the animal science department. Currently, the Animal Science department is situated in Westcott, a 65-year-old building located behind Ford.
The new building will be much larger than the current space, featuring two 40- seat technology enabled active learning (TEAL) classrooms and one 60-seat tiered classroom. Judy Wilson, chair of the animal science department, is excited about what the addition will mean for collaborative work across the entire animal science department.
“We’re going to be more centralized, and this may allow us to be a little more collaborative, because we’ll be in closer proximity with the science building.” Wilson said.
Because the new building is being built on top of the Mac parking lot, and several parking spaces (have been taken up) in order to complete construction. Students can park in the Cage parking lot or the remaining Mac parking spaces. Currently, there are no plans for a parking lot expansion.
Animal science is one of Berry largest programs and the budget on this project is $15.7 million dollars. Despite COVID-19, the fundraising team has been able to collect funds and major contributions from generous alumni, donors and Berry affiliates.
“You’ve probably heard of it, the Save-A-Student scholarship,” associate vice president for advancement Scott Breithaupt said. “That all happened since COVID started, a lot of that fundraising, and so it taught us that even in this time you can raise money if the need is there.”
Despite the major change to the department, students should expect the program to run smoothly, according to Wilson.
“Everyone’s moving to the new building, all faculty members and staff,” Wilson said. “But we’ll still have our faculty members down at the animal units. That won’t change.”