Minard Hall Collapse at NDSU - This Time, It's Personal

"BUILDING CAVES IN: No one injured in overnight collapse at NDSU excavation site"
InForum, Fargo Forum (December 28, 2010)

"Part of a wall collapsed from Minard Hall, a classroom building on the North Dakota State University campus, sometime between midnight and 3 a.m. Sunday...."

"NDSU files claim in building wall collapse"
The Associated Press, via WDAY (December 28, 2010)

"North Dakota State University has filed a $500,000 insurance claim for the collapse of part of Minard Hall on campus.

"A section of the north side of the four-story building gave way early Sunday, apparently because nearby excavation weakened the soil around the foundation...."

It could have been worse, as we say around here. Nobody was hurt.

Still, it's not good.

This may not be a big deal to you, but some of the classes I took while doing time at NDSU were in Minard. It's a nice-looking building.

A description, written about a century back, of Minard hall, from the NDSU website:

"Minard Hall, originally named Science Hall, was to be built in three stages as building funds became available. It was noted in the 1902-03 NDAC Catalog that this first section cost about $25,000. "This new building is 68x80 feet in size of ground plan, three stories high and furnishes commodious quarters for the departments of biology, geology, horticulture and mathematics. The entire building is finished with quarter-sawed oak, is well lighted and ventilated and is one of the most artistic buildings on campus. Science Hall, when completed, will be 80 feet deep and 224 feet long and its central structure four stories high" (NDAC Catalog, 1902-03, p. 13)."
("Minard Hall," Building details, NDSU)

These days, Minard housed NDSU's College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; the Department of Math, Psychology Department.

NDSU is doing a pretty good job of keeping folks informed. From "Minard Hall Updates" -

"...Office equipment, furniture and other items will be retrieved before the floors are removed. The removal process was expected to begin within two weeks."
(January 21, 2010)

"Contractors are continuing to move faculty and staff from the English and Psychology Departments over to Morrill Hall. This move should finish sometime this weekend.

"Next week, the Communication Department will be moved to the 2nd floor of Ehly Hall. Both these departments were located in the blue zone...."
(January 15, 2010)

I'd been wondering about that. There's an intimidating amount of paperwork involved in running an academic department: student records, lesson plans and whatever they're using for overhead slides these days are just part of it.

It's one thing for a student to say, "the dog ate my homework." It's something else for a professor to have to say, "a building fell on your project."


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Background:

• "North Dakota State University
  Fargo, North Dakota
  • "8. Minard Hall"
    (Virtual Campus Tour)
  • "Minard Hall"
    Building details