First Look: New Building Signals New Day At Auburn Harbert

With the new building now open and hosting classes across the spectrum of Auburn Harbert’s undergraduate and graduate curriculum, a certain mild chaos is underway, Ranft says. “I think we’re figuring it out as we go, honestly,” she says. “We have different classroom designs; we have classrooms which are designed for a completely flipped experience. There’s no ‘sage on stage’ physically supported in that room. The technology is housed in the center of the class, and then it’s color coded with very flat, flexible tables, and I think there’s 12 monitors around the room that students can own through their team. It’s a completely different way of thinking about the classroom experience.

“We’ve gone through some training and some exercises with our faculty to really think about how to leverage that technology and how to leverage that configuration in the classroom. The idea is that when we bring people together, that’s the time to be doing much more engaging, interactive sorts of things. And then of course we have the classrooms that allow us to connect with our distant students, our online students as well.

“They’re really infusing technology and innovative layouts in the spaces, which will have a dramatic impact on how we can engage with our students in the classroom. Some of our newer faculty are getting very creative with what they can do in that space. And it’s really nice to see that begin to happen.”

The Auburn Creed

I believe that this is a practical world and that I can count

only on what I earn. Therefore, I believe in work, hard work.

I believe in education, which gives me the knowledge to work

wisely and trains my mind and my hands to work skillfully.

I believe in honesty and truthfulness, without which I cannot

win the respect and confidence of my fellow men.

I believe in a sound mind, in a sound body and a spirit that is

not afraid, and in clean sports that develop these qualities.

I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all.

I believe in the human touch, which cultivates sympathy with my

fellow men and mutual helpfulness and brings happiness for all.

I believe in my Country, because it is a land of freedom

and because it is my own home, and that I can best serve that

country by “doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly

with my God.”

And because Auburn men and women believe in these things,

I believe in Auburn and love it.

-George Petrie (1943)

“The Creed connects the old and the new,” Ranft says. “I think it’s a really important part of who we are as a college. We had our leadership retreat this summer and I had a design thinking facilitator come in and we spent some time around the question of, ‘How do we maintain our momentum as a college dividing into two separate spaces and splitting our faculty and staff across two different facilities?’ So we’re working really hard to move the whole college into the future.”