Kalpana Chawla - named Residence hall

April o2, 2003
The Facilities Planning and Construction Committee of the University of Texas System Board of Regents Tuesday unanimously approved a request from The University of Texas at Arlington to name its next student residence hall Kalpana Chawla Hall in memory of the UTA alumna who died in the Feb. 1 Space Shuttle Columbia.

Dr. Chawla, who received her masters of science degree in aerospace engineering from UTA in 1984, was Flight Engineer and Mission Specialist 2 aboard the shuttle that was lost during re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. She was responsible for maneuvering the Columbia as part of several experiments in the shuttle's payload bay. Selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in December 1994, she was also the prime robotic arm operator on a 1997 space shuttle mission that focused on how the weightless environment of space affects various physical processes. Born in India, she was the first woman from that nation to go into space on a U.S. shuttle. A scholarship in her name has been established at UTA.

The naming request will now go to the entire U.T. System Board of Regents for final approval May 8. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is expected to vote on UTA's request for the building in July. Once the University's request to build the hall at 901 South Oak St. is fully approved, groundbreaking would be some time in mid-summer.

The new hall will be a living/learning residence, housing approximately 400 students in 16 learning communities, clustered according to learning themes or major disciplines. Living/learning communities are residence halls or segments of residence halls in which spaces are dedicated to groups of students who not only live together but who also attend classes and study together. In addition to the amenities offered in Arlington Hall, the new hall will include features specific to a living/learning community: seminar-style rooms for living/learning classes and offices for faculty and advisors to counsel students.

The pilot program for UTA's living/learning community was established in Arlington Hall by the UTA Honors College and the Mav Scholars Program, fall, 2002. In 2004, these communities will move to the new residence hall where they will be joined by an additional 12 learning communities.

Seventy-five percent of the rooms in the new hall will be three-bedroom suites; twenty-five percent will be two-person rooms and there will be common spaces to encourage study and interaction among students, social lounges, study lounges, computer labs and vending areas. Each room will have high-speed Ethernet connections, metro phone service, card access, and expanded cable TV. The hall will be more than 127,000 gross square feet and be completed no later than Aug. 1, 2004.


	University of Texas at Arlington announced Residence hall to bear name of alumna who died on Columbia shuttle April o2, 2003 The Facilities Planning and Construction Committee of the University of Texas System Board of Regents Tuesday unanimously approved a request from The University of Texas at Arlington to name its next student residence hall Kalpana Chawla Hall in memory of the UTA alumna who died in the Feb. 1 Space Shuttle Columbia. Dr. Chawla, who received her masters of science degree in aerospace engineering from UTA in 1984, was Flight Engineer and Mission Specialist 2 aboard the shuttle that was lost during re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. She was responsible for maneuvering the Columbia as part of several experiments in the shuttle's payload bay. Selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in December 1994, she was also the prime robotic arm operator on a 1997 space shuttle mission that focused on how the weightless environment of space affects various physical processes. Born in India, she was the first woman from that nation to go into space on a U.S. shuttle. A scholarship in her name has been established at UTA. The naming request will now go to the entire U.T. System Board of Regents for final approval May 8. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is expected to vote on UTA's request for the building in July. Once the University's request to build the hall at 901 South Oak St. is fully approved, groundbreaking would be some time in mid-summer. The new hall will be a living/learning residence, housing approximately 400 students in 16 learning communities, clustered according to learning themes or major disciplines. Living/learning communities are residence halls or segments of residence halls in which spaces are dedicated to groups of students who not only live together but who also attend classes and study together. In addition to the amenities offered in Arlington Hall, the new hall will include features specific to a living/learning community: seminar-style rooms for living/learning classes and offices for faculty and advisors to counsel students. The pilot program for UTA's living/learning community was established in Arlington Hall by the UTA Honors College and the Mav Scholars Program, fall, 2002. In 2004, these communities will move to the new residence hall where they will be joined by an additional 12 learning communities. Seventy-five percent of the rooms in the new hall will be three-bedroom suites; twenty-five percent will be two-person rooms and there will be common spaces to encourage study and interaction among students, social lounges, study lounges, computer labs and vending areas. Each room will have high-speed Ethernet connections, metro phone service, card access, and expanded cable TV. The hall will be more than 127,000 gross square feet and be completed no later than Aug. 1, 2004.