Campus Growth

Barnett Hall will be home to College of Christian Ministries and Religion

Named after Southeastern's transitional chancellor and influential Assemblies of God pastor Tommy Barnett, Barnett Hall will house the College of Christian Ministries and Religion. The facility will feature state-of-the-art classrooms, 20 faculty and staff offices, a 200-seat lecture hall, and a room in which students may pray any time of day or night. Barnett Hall also will have a library, and classrooms equipped to record lectures for online video streaming.

Ken Blanchard Executive Leadership Center to house MBA program, administrative offices

Southeastern University is preparing the ground to build the three-story Ken Blanchard Executive Leadership Center. The $7 million, 46,000-square-foot facility, which will sit near Lake Bonny, will house the school's top administrative offices and Master of Business Administration program.

The building will be named after Dr. Ken Blanchard, the author of the popular book The One Minute Manager and founder of The Ken Blanchard Companies, an international management training and consulting firm based in San Diego, California. Dr. Blanchard, who maintains a close relationship with Southeastern, has spoken at the university's National Leadership Forum.

Construction begins on Longfellow Boulevard project

Longfellow Boulevard, the two-lane street that runs in front of Southeastern's campus, is undergoing long-awaited renovations. The following improvements are underway:

• the addition of two southbound turning lanes, one to turn into the main entrance of the university, and the other to turn onto North Crystal Lake Drive
• paving of Longfellow Boulevard from Bush Chapel south to North Crystal Lake Drive
• university gateway entry signs at the corners of Longfellow Boulevard and North Crystal Lake Drive
• decorative street lighting with underground utilities and sidewalks
• the addition of a 12-foot-wide landscaped median in a portion of the street.

Southeastern’s College of Business and Legal Studies and College of Education has a new home

In September 2008, Southeastern dedicated the new Business and Education building. The renovated, two-story facility includes about 32,000 square feet of classroom, administrative, and faculty office space for the College of Business and Legal Studies and the College of Education.

This $5.5 million renovated building includes the following:

• 16 classrooms, including one 70-seat classroom and three 50-seat classrooms
• a 150-seat lecture hall
• three computer labs
• 24 faculty offices
• two administrative office suites
• a conference room

The renovation also included an addition to the old building: an elevator. In addition to remodeling the interior of the building, Southeastern overhauled the exterior of the structure to match the Mediterranean-styled architecture of the rest of campus.

New campus restaurant, Tuscana Ristorante, opened in August 2007

Southeastern's new dining facility, Tuscana Ristorante, opened in August 2007. Not only does it top the old dining hall by 10,000 square feet and seat 350 more diners, it offers students, staff, and visitors a different dining experience.

While the serving stations in the old facility —with the exception of the salad bar—were lined up along walls, the serving stations in Tuscana Ristorante are islands spread throughout the restaurant. This setup facilitates a “marché” style of food service.

“Marché” is French for “market.” Marché-style serving is a popular concept in the university food service industry, says John Kautz, Southeastern’s vice president for finance and administration.

Food stations at the new restaurant include a meat-carving station, a salad bar, a deli bar, a station for deluxe entrees, a grill for hamburgers and other quick American fare, and a pizza/pasta station—where brick-oven pizza is made. The restaurant also has a breakfast station, a dessert station, and two beverage stations.

The marché-style setup is just one feature of the new, 25,000-square-foot, $7 million dining facility that Southeastern built to keep up with student growth at the university. The new restaurant, which sits between Bethany and Aventura residence halls, seats 750 people and replaces the old, 400-seat dining hall. Another 70 people can dine on the patio of the new restaurant.

In addition to having more space for general dining, the new facility contains 200 seats of banquet space, which the public can rent for community and private events. The banquet space can be converted into three rooms that serve 80, 170, or 200 people. The new building also features a presidential dining room that seats 30 people.

The one-story, steel and concrete block-construction facility has a Mediterranean design that meshes with the existing buildings on campus. Tuscana includes a ceiling that reaches 20 feet.