Franklin Hall

Description of the video:

[00:00:10]
>> Over one hundred years ago my grandfather and Henry Sherman Adams, a Monroe County farmer and a stonecutter, helped lay the foundation for a new campus library. Now known as Franklin Hall, this is its story. For the first sixty years, this beautiful limestone building played a central role in the lives of thousands of students.

[00:00:46]
This room, Presidents Hall, was once the grand reading room of the main library. In the late 1960s when I was a student, it housed one and a half million books in what were then the library stacks. When the library moved in 1969, this building found a new role as our campus student services building. Many of you may remember it as a place you registered for classes and paid your bursar bill.

[00:01:18]
In October 2014, construction began to make Franklin Hall the new home of The Media School. When you look at Franklin Hall from the outside, you’ll see that the facade hasn’t changed much over time, but the interior has been transformed. Inside, you’ll find the most technologically advanced facilities in one of the most historic buildings on campus. Students will continue to learn within the walls of Franklin Hall.

[00:01:52]
And they’ll be telling their own stories, using all the tools of the modern media.

‘Stand by.’ ‘What do you think about this?’ ‘Can we change the headline?’ ‘Test, one, two.’ ‘Move it up some.’ ‘Pan left just a touch.’ ‘If you look at the Johnson and Johnson case, you’ll see that they represented the company well.’ ‘Now let’s switch up that anchor read on the next segment.’ ‘Once we have these censors connected, we’ll be able to watch your heart rate.’ ‘Standby.’ ‘I think you could boost the immersion in your game if you use the dynamic material, like this.’ ‘And, five, four, three, two, one.’

The arch around the front door points to the inscription of a quote from poet John Milton added by limestone carvers in 1934 ‘A good book is the precious life blood of a master spirit.’

[00:03:10]
Franklin Hall has moved on from its origins as a library, but the inscriptions will stay as a reminder of the building's original purpose as the heart of campus learning. Welcome to the new Franklin Hall, where the ideas of the next generation will be built.