Breathe Carolina Hello Fascination Songs

[Kimberly Ballas]

Whatdoes it take to design a new building on a university campus? What is the process like, what makes this different than other architectural projects? Come to this event to hear from the designers, architects and facilities management behind SUU's newest addition. Get to know the new structure before it is completed!

Mary Pearson, the dean of the School of Business and Greg Powell, the chair of the Department of Management, Marketing, & Hospitality, discussed why the school, which has grown by about 40% in recent years, needs a new home. The current building has structural issues, such as a non-ADA-compliant elevator and out-of-date infrastructure and software, which the new building will correct. It will also have room for large lecture halls, a new entrepreneurship lab, eight study rooms, and space for the new business analytics programs.

Tiger Funk, the executive director for Facilities Management, discussed the considerations that go into placing and planning the building. These include finding a location with the room for it, extending necessary utility services, and selecting a spot that fits in with the surrounding structures.

Chad Nielsen, the CEO of MHTN Architects, said that designing the building is a long, but enjoyable, collaborative process. The needs of the students, staff, and school must be considered, as well as how the building will contribute to the flow of traffic and how it will look. He said that Pearson, Powell, and Funk were all part of the committee that helped make these decisions.

Brian McBeth, the project manager for Layton Construction, was the final member of the panel. He talked about the process of taking blueprints and digital mockups and finding the most cost-effective way of bringing them to life. Our Business Building went through 14 price estimates, but in the end, Layton Construction was able to bring the guaranteed maximum price of the project to just under 11.15 million, which is 1.6% below the target budget.

This A.P.E.X. Event was not only informative about what happens behind the scenes of a multi-million-dollar construction project, but it was an exciting look at a major change coming to the University. Next week, A.P.E.X. will host Emily Graslie, a scientist and YouTube sensation, as she presents "The Value of Curiosity."

Intro: [00:00:02] Hey everyone this is Lynn Vartan and you are listening to the APEX Hour on KSUU Thunder 91.1 In this show, you get more personal time with the guests who visit Southern Utah University from all over. Learning more about their stories and opinions beyond their presentations on stage. We will also give you some new music to listen to and hope to turn you on to some new sounds and new genres. You can find us here every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. and on the web at suu.edu/apex or email us at suu...@icloud.com. For now, welcome to this week's show here on Thunder 91.1

Lynn Vartan: [00:00:51] Alright. Well welcome everyone. We are here in the studio today. It's 3:00 p.m. and this is Dr. Lynn Vartan. And joining me in the studio is Dr. Ravi Roy welcome.

Lynn Vartan: [00:01:15] It is indeed. We're here in the student center it's for those of you who aren't familiar with the building it's completely open and students are walking by and it's our main thoroughfare. Well we had a great morning so far today. And Dr. Roy gave his 2018 faculty distinguished lecture and he's probably breathing a sigh of relief for a more casual discussion here. But we'd love to just kind of get into it and just kind of ask some questions and we'll see where the conversation takes us. Would you mind giving those at home listening just kind of a little introduction to your life and career?

Ravi Roy: [00:01:53] Sure. Well as I approach 50 years old now I'm reminded that I've been teaching for about 20 years at the university level which is kind of humbling when you think about it if you look back. But yeah so I grew up in Los Angeles California. And it's something we have in common obviously.

Ravi Roy: [00:02:16] At Cal State Northridge where I was an undergraduate for two years and then transferred to UCLA and from there I went to Claremont Graduate University and took my Master of Arts and Public Policy and then my Ph.D. and long story short I'd been back to see on a couple of times to first teach in their mph program after a public administration program and to run it before I did that I was here for a couple of years. About 14 years ago.

Lynn Vartan: [00:02:56] Wow. Well I have so many questions for you but let's start with Melbourne. Tell me a little bit about your experience there and what you did and maybe you know some of your take on life there. Well.

Ravi Roy: [00:03:11] I think the surveys show that you know a lot of Americans have a very positive view of Australia and about Melbourne in particular I know I did growing up being a huge George Miller fan of the Mad Max films and yeah we ended up moving to a suburb that's pretty close where they filmed the original Mad Max with no way. So did you visit the set. You know the the the the police station for example is the Spottswood iron works and then the University of Melbourne parking garages where they kept the interceptor and that movie so yeah I mean I got to be quite familiar with all that stuff which I thought was really cool.

Ravi Roy: [00:03:51] I don't I'm not a big picture for those who know me they've seen my my dumb phone that looks like something that popped out of 1992. I don't know if my phone can take pictures. I certainly don't use it so.

Ravi Roy: [00:04:14] I went there to teach international development which is a related field to public administration the kind of global arena. And while I was there I was promoted pretty quickly to run the the master's program in international development. And I also was at the research center there. It's a place called RMIT University which is you know kind of a small universe and about 90000 students on any given day of the week. And in all seriousness it is the largest universe in Australia it competes in size of population with probably University of Michigan and Ohio State.

Ravi Roy: [00:05:06] So it's RMIT is in the central business district of Melbourne. And so they.. It's very much organized like NYU. You really don't know you're on the campus. I see. So the buildings are numbered and they're peppered throughout the central business district of Melbourne. So really Melbourne Central station is kind of like well as our said we should just call that RMIT central because really that's right that's so you know that for our cluster that's our property and we were responsible for a lot of the foot traffic and so forth.

Ravi Roy: [00:05:49] So I mean students in Australia I think by nature, are a little bit more aware of international issues. I think that's changing more and more as more and more millennials do travel-study abroad. Their careers are taking them abroad. Australia really is to characterize it correctly as more Australasia. So they are kind of already integrated I mean their nearest neighbors Indonesia it's like as close as are Mexico right. So you know they travel abroad you know for vacations to study abroad and so there is already there was earlier on I think a focus on the global stra but we're catching up on Graser.

Ravi Roy: [00:06:48] Well my youngest was actually born there. So we have an incentive. I did get an endeavor fellowship which is kind of like a Fulbright from their government last year so I did spend-I got the opportunity spent a month there last December and nor to make sure I stayed in the good graces of my wife and kids, I arrived back on Christmas Eve to make sure that I was back home.

Lynn Vartan: [00:07:16] Good for you, well done! Well that's great. And I also I'm interested in your travels to Indonesia I know you've you've worked with some officials there and then you have a great award from the president there. Can you talk about that project that Indonesia toward 2025 I think it's called?

Ravi Roy: [00:07:35] So in 2010 His Excellency Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had established, I think it was in 2009 actually, the Indonesian defense university and the whole idea was to bring in a kind of international scholars and working with an outfit in part with the Germans and they had a really great conference there and I was invited to represent Australia in that mix. And so the idea was to bring in a kind of. International perspective of where Indonesia could go strategically and so forth. There was also a large part of this was a PR. I mean a meaningful PR not just lip service PR, but a meaningful PR to restore Indonesia's credibility particularly with countries like Australia who were very much involved in the conflict with East Timor, which had occurred, you know, a few years prior to that and so that was that was a very painful situation there. And this was a wise investment I believe to integrate Indonesia at that time, more within a global conversation a more collaborative conversation. And based on that, there was a summer school series, short intensive courses daylong type of thing and they invited me back again. Now it was a few months later I think the first 2025 conference was in March of 2010. I was invited back then and sometime in June, I think it was.

Ravi Roy: [00:09:22] That's a good question I haven't, unfortunately, stayed as connected now having left Australia back in 2011 obviously regime changes have happened there so it'll be interesting to revisit that I just haven't had an opportunity given. But at that time there was a genuine conversation about the desire to do this and concerns that it might ultimately not work what was very interesting to have that kind of open dialogue with members of the military. Oh wow defense minister was a graduate of UC Berkeley. Oh you know so we know I'm from UCLA we had that you see Kujan common. I think he was saying that one of his children was also a graduate of UC as well. So it is true what they say about the Berkeley mafia and the Indonesian government.

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