Amelia Bowers

Reporter

After four years of planning and construction, Mississippi University for Women is in the final stages of finishing up its anticipated new state-of-the-art Culinary building.

In 2019 the Culinary Arts Institute revealed its plans for a brand-new building that would replace the now demolished Taylor and Keirn halls. The building is an upgrade from the current Culinary building, Shattuck Hall, and will have features such as two prep kitchens, a library and event space, as well as other additions. Culinary staff, faculty and students look forward to what the new building will bring.

Dr. Marty Brock, dean of the College of Business and Professional Studies, has been a part of the project from the start and is eager to open the building to Culinary students. She said she believes that the building will have a profound impact on student learning.

“We’re going from one kitchen that we’re having to balance classes around, to expanding to two prep kitchens and a baking kitchen. With balancing one kitchen right now we’re having to run some classes way into the evening, which is not always a good thing, especially for our Culinary students who work in the restaurant industry,” she says.

Brock is also very excited for the library space that the building provides.

“I’m excited about that because those Culinary students spend so many hours in the instructional kitchen that they often don’t have a lot of time to go somewhere and study. This will give them some space to have a little downtime between their classes.”

She also foresees event space being used not only for Culinary students, but campus and community events.

“One of the things I would like to see us begin doing again is more of the community-type classes and bringing things back like Kids Camp that’s been on pause since COVID,” she says.

For Brock, the new building is a triumph not only for the Culinary Arts Institute, but for the entire campus and even the Columbus community, as well.

Students aren’t the only ones who have a lot to look forward to once the building is opened. Instructors such as Chef Mary Helen Hawkins look forward to the teaching opportunities that the new building creates.

“4,400 square feet gives us a lot of room,” says Hawkins. “Not only will we have the largest Culinary Art school in Mississippi, but students will be exposed to the latest equipment to prepare them for the work force.”

Hawkins is particularly excited about the new baking kitchen.

“It’s the first time we’ve had a baking kitchen,” she explains, “and we just developed a new curriculum. We’ll be adding a Pastry Arts minor, and this will allow us to train pastry chefs for future employment in restaurants.”

She says that the program will be in full force in the fall of 2023.

Culinary students anticipate good things once the building is completed. Junior student Laura MacLellan is a Culinary Arts and Business Administration major at The W, and she has been looking forward to the new building since its initial announcement in 2019. For MacLellan, more instructional spaces and new equipment are the most exciting aspects of the new Culinary building.

“There will be more class spaces so we can have more variety in the classes that are taught. I also definitely think it will help learning because we’ll have more up-to-date equipment, and it’s not old, so we’ll be spending a lot less of our own money,” MacLellan says.

Construction is anticipated to be completed by the end of May with classes meeting in the building in the fall.

“A lot of stars have to align to make sure that happens, but I feel pretty good about it,” Brock says.