The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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November 4, 2009

Makeover breathes new life into Ostrander

MSU auditorium a major part of campus

By Robb Murray

MANKATO — Imagine you’re a big whig at Minnesota State University and you’ve finally persuaded the ambassador of a very powerful European country to come to campus and deliver a powerful lecture to a captive audience.

And just when he gets up there and is ready to speak and regale the audience with the wisdom and brilliance of his award-winning career, the guy in row 12, seat 5 leans a little to the right, which unleashes an ear-piercing squeak that bounces off the walls and echoes enough to make the distinguished guest pause and wonder what kind of place this Minnesota State University is that it lets its auditorium seats get so obnoxious.

That’s fiction. But there’s nothing made up about the squeak factor in those seats, a fact that had made MSU’s Ostrander Auditorium rather infamous as a venue for high-profile events.

Today, however, those seats are long gone, and the place has transformed into a fresh, gleaming-new space for lecturers, musicians and films.

“That’s kind of why we did this,” says Laurie Woodward, the Centennial Student Union director who was pleased to get rid of those seats and give one of the campus’ most important rooms a makeover.

It is the room of first impression for a lot of students who come to campus for orientation. And for many community members who only come to campus for a speaker or for, say, “The Vagina Monologues,” that’s one of the few rooms you’ll see.

That impression hasn’t been the best in recent years. Today, however? The difference is, to say the least, astounding.

Gone are those seats. Gone is the gloom. Gone is the “cattle ramp” on the side that satisfied Americans with Disabilities Act requirements but did so in a very metallic and noisy way.

Instead, the room is distinguished by bigger seats, shiny new hardwood floors on the stage, decorative walls that flank the stage that hold up blueish-purple flames — the MSU logo — that glow when the lights are off.

The project came in “a dollar or two” under its $1.7 million budget, Woodward said. And it was completed on schedule. During its first day of operation, nine events were held there.

“We had good people working on the building,” Woodward said. “They paid a lot of attention to doing it right.”

Students seem to be enthused as well.

Ryan Ihrke of MSU’s Student Leadership Development and Service Learning Department, said attendance is up for the feature films that are shown weekly in Ostrander.

“People are excited about seeing the new space,” Ihrke said.

Oh, and one more thing about those seats. Because of the swelling of the average American derriere, average seat sizes were increased from 17-20 inches in the old squeaky ones to a much roomier 19-24 inches. In case you’re interested, there’s a row of six wider ones left of the stage, front row.

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