With hard-to-miss wire fencing disrupting convenient building navigation, students have likely noticed the construction in progress near T.H. Harris Hall. Despite its inconveniencing nature, the new development is intended to benefit students. Behind the scenes, Dr. Huey Lawson of Title III is overseeing a multi-step, $1.7 million construction program designed to enhance the student experience at Southern University.
Merging a lounge area into the T.H Harris Hall is part of this program. Dr. Lawson describes how an underlying issue lead to his vision. “One of the things I’ve noticed that–on a couple of occasions–were students sitting on the floor in the hallway with a book open, studying. And I thought about it and I said, ‘There’s not a lobby in this building.’ If a kid needs to go somewhere before class to prep, where would they do it? Nowhere.”
Dr. Lawson goes on to describe extensive waiting lines that stretch outside the Registrar and Bursar’s office and deems them unacceptable– especially if the weather is particularly cold. He seeks to resolve these issues by ordering the construction of an indoor lounging area. This process will utilize the free space near the hall’s fountain, though it notably won’t be removed by his own admission. “What was now the open-air courtyard walkway,” he details, “from the exterior will look very similar to what you see near Financial Aid and Admissions.” This enclosing of open space will include the second floor and incorporate landscaping, improving asthetics.
Dr. Lawson further explained that the making of this building and the potential streamlining of the waiting process for admissions and the Registrar’s Office go hand-in-hand. He likens this new waiting process to an Apple store where customers enter their contact information in a kiosk from which they will receive a notification when it’s their turn in line.
This would not mark the first time the T.H Harris Hall was renovated; Frank Lassiter oversaw its first remodeling 40 years ago and it is Lassiter who is the designated architect of this current construction process.
Dr. Lawson explained that this program was greenlit by the U.S Department of Education; it granted permission to Title III to use some of their remaining HEERF (Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund). HEERF is a program that provides aid to students that experienced COVID-related hardships. In other words: this construction process was paid entirely by federal grants.
“It’s not a very complex project,” he specifies, “It’s probably one of the smaller ones of the ones we’re doing, but I think it’s one that’ll be impactful to have this building for everybody that takes English [classes] and everybody in the Registrar’s Office.”
He concludes his exposition by stating that this program was established for the students. Building the study area is projected to be completed before the Spring semester of 2026.
