Social work and criminal justice faculty members moved into new offices over winter break after Ashland University purchased a building on Claremont Avenue. There will be an open house tomorrow from 3 to 5 p.m. in the new building.

Temporarily known as the “Claremont Building,” the facility is being used to help the university grow, according to AU President Dr. Fred Finks.

“Our future goal is to build a new academic building where Miller Hall once stood,” Finks said. “That has been a desire, to bring the Andrews Hall folks closer to the College of Arts and Sciences.”

Currently, the social sciences – which include social work, criminal justice, psychology, political science, history and family and consumer science – are spread out across campus, with offices and classrooms in Andrews Hall, the Kates Center, the Dwight Schar College of Education and now the Claremont Building.

Finks said the university is planning to launch a capital campaign for the new building when the economy turns, but development and construction could take three to five years.

In the meantime, the Claremont Building is being used as a transition until the new center can be built, according to Dr. Dawn Webber, dean of the college of arts and sciences.

“It’s a beautiful facility,” Webber said. “It’s a tremendous step up from the faculty office space those departments had in Andrews Hall, so we’re very excited.”

Five faculty members from the departments of social work and criminal justice now have offices in the Claremont Building, which also has a kitchenette, a conference room, an office for adjunct professors and an office for college of nursing faculty who are working on main campus.

All of the social work and criminal justice offices used to be on the second floor of Andrews Hall, where conditions were “less than ideal,” according to Nancy Udolph, chair of the social work department.

“Andrews is just run down,” she said, adding that the second floor of Andrews Hall used to be dorm rooms. “These are real offices.”

Preparing the Claremont Building for the new offices required only minor renovations and new furniture, according to Finks, which cost approximately $31,000. The building itself was purchased for $725,5000.

Udolph said the transition from Andrews Hall to the Claremont Building went smoothly. Each office has new furniture, including new desks and bookshelves, and the offices are more spacious than those in Andrews.

The only drawback, she said, is the separation from the history and political science departments, whose offices are still on the first floor of Andrews.

“The thing that we miss here is being with the rest of our colleagues,” Udolph said. “There’s strength in collaboration with other departments.”

The social science departments will be reunited when the new academic center is built in approximately five years.

Other construction plans include the renovation of the lower level of the Claremont Building and the second floor of Andrews Hall.

The second floor of Andrews Hall will be turned back into dorm rooms this spring.

According to Finks, the switch from office space to dormitories will help resolve the issues the university had with housing this year.

At the start of the fall semester, 16 men were living in lounges that had been converted into makeshift dorm rooms to handle a housing shortage.

Finks said it will be up to Residence Life regarding what kind of housing will be in Andrews.

The university does plan to add air conditioning to the new dorms, according to Finks.

The basement of the Claremont Building will be reconfigured over summer to feature two new classrooms.

Professors from the departments of social work and criminal justice will have priority when scheduling classes, but the rooms will be open to other departments too, according to Udolph.