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New DigsBy Claire St. Amant
A lot has changed at Baylor since 1987. The construction of several academic buildings, residence halls, and recreational facilities over the past twenty years has altered the face of campus, but at least one building has remained virtually untouched--until now.
For the first time in more than two decades, Kokernot Residence Hall is being renovated. Kokernot was opened in the spring of 1948 and has only undergone one other substantial renovation in its history, which took men out of the building to create more housing for female students. This year's $2-million facelift will bring men and women under the same roof but will not create a truly co-ed living space, said dean of student learning and engagement Dr. Frank Shushok, pictured (center) with Dr. Glenn Blalock (left) and project designer George Thornton (right). Men and women will have adjoining wings separated by a newly-constructed wall and a common lobby in the same way that Heritage House of North Village is arranged, Shushok said.
The renovated hall will house students enrolled in three new Engaged Learning Groups (ELGs), faculty offices, and a faculty-in-residence family, bringing the total number of faculty members living on campus to nine. Moving the ELGs to Kokernot allows both men and women in these programs to share common space while still adhering to Baylor standards of same-gender housing, Shushok said. Previously, ELG participants were separated by gender in two different residence halls, Penland and Collins.
ELGs, which were first implemented in fall 2007, are groups of up to forty-nine students who live together and participate in interdisciplinary study with faculty for up to four semesters. The three ELGs for 2008 are Entrepreneurship and Creative Leadership, Exploring Christian Narratives: From Eden to Modernity, and Global Community. Faculty members in religion, business, theater arts, journalism, and modern foreign languages have been selected to explore these topics alongside students.
Dr. Laine Scales, professor of social work and educational administration and associate dean of the Graduate School, and
 her husband, Dr. Glenn Blalock, assistant professor of English, will live in an apartment in Kokernot with their daughter, April. (The family is pictured at right.) Scales and Blalock have been university educators for sixteen and nineteen years, respectively. Scales said she is excited about "the chance for daily connections with undergraduate students in informal settings." She believes living in the residence hall will allow her to draw on experiences both academic and personal. "I look forward to bringing my skills as an educator, researcher, and community builder to this position," Scales said.
Blalock described his new post as "an ideal opportunity" to expand relationships with first-year students, the group with whom he enjoys interacting the most. Their family will live with ELG students and help form the community that includes other faculty members who work with students in academic groups.
Besides adding faculty housing and ELGs, the renovation addresses basic physical needs of the building, such as more community spaces, study areas, and meeting rooms. "We've really cleared out a lot of space to increase student interaction and make the residence hall more inviting," Shushok said.
Almost all the renovations took place in community areas, leaving the rooms unchanged except for those eliminated to make space for a faculty apartment. The overall occupancy has decreased by about thirty, bringing the cap to two hundred students. While Kokernot was previously separated from the mainstream campus traffic, Shushok said the reconstruction of Brooks Village has changed that for the better. "Kokernot's right in the middle of things now," he said. "It's in a really beautiful part of campus."
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