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Above the first-floor fireplace of Colvin Hall at the University of Maine is a tree mosaic of silver, gold and green glass. Along the bottom is the phrase, “studium eruditions ardescens.” The Latin translates to “Igniting a passion for learning.” The artwork, installed December 2008, signifies the end of a ten-year renovation, a project to turn a small residence hall into a home for UMaine’s Honors College.
The renovation of Colvin Hall began in 1998 and ended in 2008 – $3 million dollars later and more than eight years past the original deadline. According to students and faculty, it was worth the wait.
“The move was important. A college needs a physical home. It can’t just exist in a virtual sense,” said Honors College Dean Charlie Slavin.
The original projected cost was $1.5 million, an amount the college expected to raise in one year. Everything was underestimated, according to Slavin. Building codes changed, some costs were overlooked and prices of construction materials rose after Hurricane Katrina.
Despite the setbacks, Colvin now has four floors: The first-floor Robert Thompson Center, the second and third-floor residence halls and the fourth-floor Oscar Remick Student Forum and Margaret Chase Smith Visiting Scholar Suite.
“It’s a really exciting space. I think the rooms came out great,” Slavin said.
In 1930, Colvin opened as a women’s dormitory, housing 48 students and a matron. The first floor included the matron’s suite, sunroom, dining room and bedrooms with walnut-finished furniture. The basement was divided into a kitchen, storage room, servants’ restroom and a laundry room with tubs. At that time, the building had a “modern touch,” and “homelike atmosphere” according to Jenny R. Hutchinson in the October 1930 issue of The Maine Alumnus.
From 1935 to 2001, Honors was only offered as a program at UMaine. It became an official college in 2002.
In the mid-to-late ’90s, typically 12 to 18 students graduated from the program each year. Now around 75 to 85 students graduate each year, according to Slavin.
In 1998, the program was looking for a new home and formed a planning committee to start laying out renovations of Colvin. By spring of 1999, honors students inhabited the second and third floors for the first time.
The original Robert Thomson Honors Center was a wooden modular design with three to four rooms built by students in 1975. In 2000 it was torn down, and the program officially moved into Colvin. From 2001 to 2003, the final touches to the first floor included lighting, ceramic tile floors and new cherry-stained furniture.
“I like the first floor with the piano. We use that a lot,” said first-year nursing student Alexandra Drummond, a Colvin resident.
In the first-floor library, students slept on dark leather couches or chatted in rocking chairs. Through a doorway, the thesis reading room has a full-wall bookcase that holds all of the college’s bound theses dating back to 1937.
In 2003, renovation of the basement included an all-purpose recreation room, television lounge, kitchen and an upgraded laundry room.
It wasn’t until September 2007 that UMaine President Robert Kennedy announced the Honors College received the last $2 million of funding through energy conservation measures, bonds and loans.
On the second and third floors, the bathrooms were completely renovated.
“They were old and 1930s-like,” Slavin said.
The quads were repainted; wood floors were installed, and the ceilings were lowered for the new wiring and lights. Throughout the construction, 98 percent of the building’s windows were replaced.
The fourth floor, formerly the attic, is the Oscar Remick Student Forum – a room for student use, small events and faculty meetings. The white walls reach up to an arched ceiling, punctuated by wooden beams and crossties. White boards, tan leather couches, 50 chairs and a fold up conference table complete the room.
“It’s just pretty. It’s clean and nice looking,” said first-year nursing student Abigail Bergeron, a resident of Colvin.
In the afternoon, four students sat at raised tables, situated in front of six large windows that look out toward the Memorial Union. Two students pored over nursing textbooks while the other two surfed the Internet on laptops.
“It’s given me an awesome place to work on my thesis,” said senior international affairs and French language student in the Honors Program Genevieve Poppe commutes three times a week to study in the Oscar Remick Student Forum.
On Inauguration day, the fourth floor was packed with people for the first celebration in the room.
The Margaret Chase Smith Visiting Scholar Suite is for visiting lecturers, available for the entire campus as long as the visitor agrees to meet with honors students during their stay, according to Slavin.
Thirty-five honors students live on the second and third floors, and members of the honors community are welcome to use the hall. Slavin calls Colvin the “physical hub of the college.” He said the inviting space contributes to building a community and he wishes to see more people using the hall.
Another renovation project is already on the horizon. The Honors College would like to renovate the basement and the fourth floor of Balentine Hall, according to Slavin. The project would take a considerable amount of money, and the idea is still in its infancy.
