News Release

ISELF groundbreaking

Friday, October 14, 2011

Aerial-view drawing of ISELF, a science teaching-and-research facility that breaks ground this month. Drawing by Rafferty Rafferty Tollefson Lindeke Architects.

Gov. Mark Dayton heads a roster of dignitaries at the noon Oct. 27 groundbreaking for ISELF, the university's $45 million science teaching-and-research facility.

The 100,000 square-foot structure, which is expected to open in 2013, will be built on Eighth Street South, east of the Education Building, at the site of the former 801 Building.

The public groundbreaking ceremony will be on-site. The rain site is Brown Hall Auditorium.

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Known formally as the Integrated Science and Engineering Laboratory Facility, ISELF will be the largest single construction project, measured in dollars, in Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system history, according to university officials.

Construction will create 325 on-site jobs and a total of 961 off-site, direct and indirect jobs, according to Dan McKay of McGough, the St. Paul-based construction manager at-risk.

Classrooms and labs are slated to serve mostly upper-level and graduate-level science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medical technology and radiology classes.

Research in ISELF will support Minnesota companies that are global leaders in medical devices, pharma/biologics, animal science, bio-agriculture and renewable energy.

St. Cloud State faculty and students will be able to do more collaborative research with businesses and earn more National Science Foundation grants, said David DeGroote, dean of the College of Science and Engineering.

"ISELF is about putting people in the same physical space to interact and collaborate around projects that are cross-disciplinary," DeGroote said. "That's how work gets done in the real world."

Joining Dayton on the dais at the ceremony will be:

Earl H. Potter III, president, St. Cloud State University

Scott Thiss, chair, MnSCU Board of Trustees

Samantha Ivey, president, Student Government

Matt Julius, professor, Department of Biological Sciences

Mike Ganz, vice president, Local Union 1, Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers

David DeGroote, dean, College of Science & Engineering

Brad Goskowicz, CEO, Microbiologics, Inc, St. Cloud

Parking is free on streets adjacent to campus and a dollar per hour in the 4th Avenue Parking Ramp.

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