CSUDH celebrated the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new I &I Building. Photo by Nova Blanco-Rico
By Jesus Loza, Staff Reporter
California State University, Dominguez Hills staff, and faculty are slowly starting to use and equip their new offices inside the $83.5 million dollar building located in Victoria Street, at the east side of campus; the new Innovation and Instruction Building. The structure was formally introduced to the campus and the surrounding community in its grand opening, on Oct.15.
The ceremony included remarks from CSUDH President Thomas A. Parham, the California State University chancellor Dr. Joseph I. Castro, CSUDH alumnus, and State Senator Steven Bradford, as well as pre-recorded speeches from Congresswoman Nanette Barragan, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, and assembly member Mike Gipson.
“This grand opening is the combination of a lot of work destined to provide students with the best facilities. This building improves instruction and research capability for the students of the future,” said Parham.
The Innovation & Instruction building is a four-story structure where faculty and students will have the chance to use a cafeteria, and a university event center with culinary facilities, as early as next semester. This new facility also has classrooms and computer laboratories with capacities ranging from 25 to 120 seats. The building has 16 classrooms and 96 offices in total and it is the new house for the College of Business Administration and Public Policy.
“It’s exciting because this is my first time coming on campus and seeing these new buildings being developed, it’s really beautiful,” said Jasmine Moreno, a freshman student at CSUDH.
The first floor consists of an auditorium room designed to hold conferences with up to 250 people. In this space, participants may collaborate and use new technology for those who cannot attend in person. The second floor of the building has many different rooms including a research facility and a business incubator. On this floor, students will have access to the trading room which has 48 terminals with real-time trading data to do projects and look if their investment strategies are good and competitive.
The building is also the house of the new School of Public Service and Justice, which is a program designed to help the community in the south bay region by addressing and finding solutions to current injustices such as poverty, homeness, health care access, and systematic racism.
This new program will allow students to use these new resources and it will help encourage students to be more ethical when it comes to public wellness and social justice, among other things.
“It is wonderful to have people come to campus again in a safe manner and to see all the new buildings. I am also very excited about the new School of Public Service and Justice that has just been announced and will be part of the college that is in this new building,” Sarah Britto said, an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Administration.
Britto explains that the new building has spaces for behavior research which will allow faculty and students to work on projects that will examine individual and social behavior and collect data from these subjects. The I&I building comes after the university’s 91,000-square-foot Science and Innovation Building, which debuted last year in the campus’s center. I&I building is ready for hosting classes next Spring 2022, along with being a place for students to relax and study.