UNA: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

     The University of North Alabama has been a University since 1967.  However, UNA can trace its history as far back as 1830 to the Lagrange College.  UNA has a rich history including surviving through the Civil War.  It was occupied by both Confederate and Union soldiers.  UNA has persevered through difficult times and is still a major University in the state with a College of Business, College of Nursing, College of Education, and the College of Arts and Sciences.  It has the honor of having the only laboratory school in the state.  However, UNA needs to look to the future and analyze the best possible alternatives to keep this University a wonderful place in the future to come.  This requires new buildings with up to the date technology, ample greenspace, and parking just to name a few.  The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of the campus, use a GIS to update the current database, propose a new Sciences Building so UNA will continue to be a beautiful campus in the future to come.

     UNA has a rich history with old historic buildings.  One of the buildings on this campus dates as far back as 1856.  This building is Wesleyan Hall, which houses the Department of Geography, Foreign Language, Psychology, and some history classes.  Wesleyan Hall served as administration building until 1930.  It housed the model training school, a chapel, and the college library, as well as classrooms.  Wesleyan Annex was completed in 1909.  It stored the public school of music and the college library.  In 1930, it contained the Department of Education.  Since 1969, it has housed the Department of Military Science.  Kilby Hall was opened in 1885 so the model training school could move out of Wesleyan.  In 1965, the Department of Education and Psychology was housed in Kilby.  Today, the Math and Computer Science is located in Kilby Hall.  Bibb Graves was completed in 1930 to be a library and administration facility.  Today, it is used as administration and classrooms.  Willingham Hall was built in 1939 and was used as a dorm for men.  In 1947, it was turned into a dorm for woman.  In 1969, it housed the Office of Career Placement.  It is the present offices for history, English, and political science.  O’Neal Hall was built in 1911 and was used as a dorm for women.  In 1950, it became the student center until 1988, when it was torn down to build the current University Center.  Finally, Collier library was constructed in 1940; it still is used as the library today.  There is several other building on campus, which have not been mention.  However, the preceding were the oldest with the most change in use. 

     Since the history of this campus is so rich in tradition, it is imperative that this tradition be embraced and magnified so that students to come will want to come to the University of North Alabama.  GIS was used to help embrace this tradition.  The project is to update the current database.  This involved adding to some layers and deleting from other layers.  Our data dictionary contains all the layers found in our database.  The roads layer was the first layer that this group decided to undergo.  We created a layer from Wesleyan and Morrison Avenues.  At this point, we changed the symbol and laid it over the streets layer.  This presented a small problem because it is not a walkway in front of Wesleyan Hall.  Through a series of trial and error, we finally figured out how to delete this section.  The road from where the walkway stops to Wood had to be drawn in using heads up digitizing.  Since this database is not georeferenced, the best that we could do is estimate where the road should be located.  After the walkways and roads were completed, we endeavored to draw in the fountain in front of Bibb Graves.  The new parking deck was drawn approximately where it is supposed to be located.  The streets around Wesleyan Hall had to be updated.  We had to draw in streets that run around the building.  Our updated database of UNA is now complete.

     UNA tomorrow deals primarily with the construction of the new Sciences Building.  The current math building was used as a blueprint for our new building.  It was our intention to draw the building as close as possible to the shape found in the Master Plan.  The recommendation is to tear down the Math Building and replace it with the new Sciences Building.  There are several reasons why we like the Math Building site.  First, the Math Building is a good move because Math and Computer Science students can be relocated the easiest on campus.   Secondly, the current Math Building is the biggest waste of space on campus.  Thirdly, the new building will create a link connecting it to Stevens, and to the parking deck.  We also had to redo the roads in front of Wesleyan Hall because the Master Plan does allow streets to run behind the building.  We corrected our database to correspond with the Master Plan.  

     UNA is a beautiful campus with a historic heritage.  A new Sciences Building is needed to attract more students to the campus.  At the same time, the preservation of the greenspace is important.  Math and Computer Science is the easiest to relocate temporarily, plus the Math Building is such a waste of space.  Therefore, we feel that the current Math Building is the best place to put the new Sciences Building.