Michigan Technological University's campus sits on 925 acres (374 ha) on a bluff overlooking Portage Lake.
The main Michigan Tech campus is located mainly on US 41 in Houghton, Michigan. It is the safest campus in Michigan, and the third safest in the United States according to Reader's Digest.[1] Many of the buildings are built up, as opposed to short and wide, which reduces the size of the campus. Michigan Tech also maintains the following areas:
In addition, the offices of the Michigan Tech Fund are located in the Citizens Bank Building in Hancock.[4] Other office areas are at the UPPCO building in Houghton.
Faculty are involved in several distance education programs, with clients such as General Motors.
The Portage Lake Golf Course opened for play in April 1902. In 1945 the members could no longer support the needs of the course and sold it to Michigan Tech for the amount of one dollar. Since then many different improvements have been made such as the addition of another nine holes in 1969. Then in 1984 the new clubhouse was constructed in place of the original clubhouse. In 1996 a sprinkler system was installed to modernize the course and keep it playable. The Portage Lake Golf Course is located only a few miles from the Michigan Tech campus on US-41.
The Chemical Sciences and Engineering Building, Chem Sci for short, was completed in 1969 and originally housed the Chemical Engineering, Chemical, Metallurgy, Biological Sciences, and Humanities departments. It replaced the second oldest building on campus, the materials processing laboratory, which had housed the shops for several engineering departments. Since the building has existed, it has had only a few accidents, the most notable two being a ventilation problem causing lead fumes to build up in the labs and the explosion of a batch of volatile chemicals being used in a polymer synthesis process which nearly killed a research assistant, Michael Abbott. Chem Sci was built for easy modification of key systems in order to keep up with the needs of the lab facilities. One example of this is the design of the ventilation system, which was placed on the outside of the building and covered in the same red brick as the rest of the structure for easy access during renovations.[5]
Michigan Technological University proposed to begin the construction of an environmentally friendly building in the summer of 1996. The academic and research programs had grown tremendously, so MTU needed to expand. The building would not only be a valuable upgrade to the students of MTU, but also to the environmental engineering students, geology, biology, and forestry programs. The primary goal of the building was to help all MTU graduates become environmentally literate, providing leadership for a sustainable future. The building became known as the Dow Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building.
The estimated cost of the Dow building was around $44 million. MTU was not able to cover the entire cost of the construction of the building, so they needed to find other sources of income. On May 12, 1993 the Michigan Governor's Office announced that they would be able to contribute $30 million to the project. This meant that MTU needed to fund the other half of the costs. Much of the funds to build the Dow building came from donations. MTU is a public university, so many of their buildings are funded by donations made by alumni, companies, and anonymous funds.
The Dow building currently houses the biology learning center, an exterior solar space- by setting the building back, designers created a courtyard to screen northern winds, making it 10 degrees warmer in all seasons, natural lighting and ventilation, and a rooftop greenhouse for biology research. All of these innovations were a part of the environmentally friendly way of construction. Most, if not all of the faculties offices are faced with windows to create natural light. This helps the university to not only save money, but to help reduce their carbon footprint.[6]
The "EERC" is home to both the Department of Electrical Engineering and Michigan Tech Telecom services. The EERC was built starting in 1974 and opened in 1976, with energy in mind throughout the design. At the building's groundbreaking in 1974, R.L. Smith (president of Michigan Tech at the time) described the building's intended use in terms of energy, stressing the importance of educating the next generation of engineers to learn to use and transport energy efficiently.[7]
At the time of its construction, the EERC was described as having a "strikingly modern design" [8] by some and "basically cement, brick, glass and steel"[9] by others. The building was designed to be energy efficient, hence the lack of large windows on the east and west faces (windows are a major source of heat loss). In building the EERC, several previous buildings were demolished including Sperr Hall and Hotchkiss Hall Only part of Hotchkiss Hall was demolished to build the EERC and the rest was brought down after equipment and personnel had moved into the EERC.[8]
The A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum, named in honor of Professor Arthur Edmund Seaman who was the head of the Michigan Tech geology department from 1899-1928,[10] was located on the fifth floor of EERC building in Michigan Tech until 2011.[11] Before the EERC building was constructed, the museum was housed in Hotchkiss Hall.[12] The museum opened in its current location on June 17, 1976.[13] The museum displays the importance and beauty of minerals and its significance to development of Michigan over 150 years ago. The museum also educates people about the value of mineralogy and geology, and helps promote a better understanding of the need to protect specimens.[14] In 2011, the museum moved out of the EERC to near the Advanced Technology Development Complex on campus.
Also known as Rekhi Hall, this building is the home of the MTU Computer Science department. Funded by the donation of Kenwal and Ann Rekhi the facility opened in 2005. Providing several new classrooms and research laboratories the facility is considered state of the art. Kenwal Rekhi is a Michigan Tech Alumni from the class of 1969.
The R.L. Smith Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics Building (also known as the MEEM) is semi-famous for being the second tallest building in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The building's first floor interior consists largely of "The Fishbowl", a large, glass-enclosed computer lab, mainly for Mechanical Engineering students.
Originally built in 1967, the U. J. Noblet Forestry and Wood Products Building was expanded in 2000 with the addition of Horner Hall and the Hesterberg Atrium. The building is constructed mostly of wood, including wood murals that reflect the subject taught by the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science. A Rhizotron is also housed in this building that allows undergraduates to complete non-invasive studies of underground processes that involve root systems, decomposition, organisms, and bacteria. The Rhizotron is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service research station located on campus.
The Student Development Complex (S.D.C.) was built in 1980. The gun range was built as part along with the rest of the S.D.C. in 1980. Built to handle any cartridges that have a muzzle velocity of up to 2,000 feet (610 m) per second, the range is also used for archery shooting.[15] Today, there are three organizations that operate out of the range: the Pistol Club (MTU and Pratical), the Competition Rifle Team, and the Archery Club. There are also several P.E. and ROTC classes that use the range. Michigan Tech hockey is currently played in the SDC. However Tech used to play at the Amphidrome. Unfortunately the Amphidrome burnt to the ground in 1927. In its place the New Amphidrome was built in 1928, the New Amphidrome has been renamed the Dee Stadium. Tech continued to play at the Dee Stadium until the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena was built in 1972.
The Advanced Technology Development Complex (A.T.D.C.) was built in 2004. It is a 27,000-square-foot (2,500 m2) building that houses the Ford Student Design Center, the Keweenaw Research Center's dynamometer, and lease space for business start-ups .[16] The Ford Student Design Center gives students in the Enterprise and senior design programs shop space to put ideas into practice.
Because of a very large incoming class in 2008, the Franklin Square Inn, a Best Western located in downtown Houghton, housed approximately 60 students through a two-year agreement with Housing and Residential Life.[26] The completion of the construction of Hillside Place for the fall 2010 semester removed the need for this additional off-campus housing.
The residence halls each have a council representing the students of that hall. The councils are: the Wadsworth Hall Student Association (WHSA), the McNair Hall Association (MHA), and the Douglass Houghton Hall Council (DHHC). The Inter-Residence Hall Council (IRHC) consists of members from all of these hall councils, as well as several at-large members, and represents all of the residents to the campus and community.
The campus network at Michigan Tech is a continually evolving entity trying to keep up with the technology curve. At its heart is an MX960 Ethernet Services Router from Juniper Networks. This switch provides 10 gigabit ethernet connectivity for the backbone of the network. Storage is handled by a 100 terabyte network-attached storage/storage area network (NAS/SAN) array. Junos software is the primary software used for configuring the network.[27]
For students, there are two main networks in addition to whatever networks might be used in a computer lab. The residence halls and university owned apartments have CAT5 ethernet connections running to every room. These are part of the Resnet network. There is also a wireless network (called Rovernet) that covers most of every building on campus. Both of these networks require a login name and password provided by the university upon enrollment to connect to them. The computer labs for the various departments run on their own networks and require the same login and password as Resnet and Rovernet but will only grant access to students registered for a class in that department or taking a major in that department. University email is provided by Zimbra and again uses the standard login. Along with standard email Zimbra also provides limited online document storage (in addition to a networked private H drive that all students have) and a built-in chat system.
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