Off-campus research center to bear dean's name

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

David Gordon

ean of Social and Behavioral Sciences Glen Gordon is one of two people for whom a new off-campus teaching and research center is being named.

      Gordon Hall also will honor the late David M. Gordon, who had been Dorothy Hirshon Professor of Economics and founding director of the Center for Economic and Policy Analysis at the graduate faculty of the New School University in New York, until his death in 1996.

    The building will be the home of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) and also will house Legal Studies, currently located in Hampshire House, and the Labor Relations and Research Center, which is located in Draper Hall. Construction on Gordon Hall is scheduled to begin this summer.

Glen Gordon

     PERI has been borrowing space from Economics and the College of Food and Natural Resources for its offices but doesn't have any of its own, said Gerald Epstein, PERI's co-director.

     "We knew that we needed to do something to find some space for ourselves," Epstein said.

     Funding for the land and the building is being provided by the Research Support Fund, a non-profit organization design to raise money for PERI.

     Gordon Hall will be located at 418 N. Pleasant St. on the site of the former Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house. Epstein said he expects the building to be occupied before the Fall 2003 semester begins.

Sigrid Miller Pollin's design of PERI's Gordon Hall as seen from North Pleasant Street.

     Once the architect, Art professor Sigrid Miller Pollin began working on the building's design, it became apparent that the building would be able to house more than just PERI, Epstein said.

     "We realized we had much more room than we ourselves had needed," he said. "So Glen Gordon agreed [to provide something to PERI] in exchange for space for Legal Studies and the Labor Relations Resource Center. He was anxious to find new places for them.

     "Glen played a crucial role in making this building happen, negotiating with the University and seeing it through the bureaucracy.

     "In exchange for [the other departments] having that space, the University has given PERI some personnel lines." The University is funding three positions for PERI, two research professorships and an administrative manager. Two of the positions have been filled, and the third will be so in the coming fiscal year.

     "Everyone expects it to be more-or-less permanent," Epstein said of the arrangement.

     "It's been a gift for us to be one of the departments getting a new, beautiful, exciting space," said Legal Studies chair Janet Rifkin. "Where we currently are we've had enough space to accommodate our needs, but it's older, and this really gives us a chance to upgrade our facilities that will energize us.

     "We're the only program moving in there that's an undergraduate program. There's going to be nice space for students to hang out. There'll be room for us to have more seminars with outside speakers and more seminar-type opportunities with our students, as well."

     "It will really be great for us to be close with departments we've worked with closely in the past," said Eve Weinbaum, assistant professor at the Labor Relations and Research Center. "It will help our colleagiality and some of the interdisciplinary work that we do. I think it's going to be one of the nicest spaces on campus."

     "I think it's good for everybody," Epstein said. "I think from the University's point of view and from our point of view, it was a good deal."