Academic Expressions

Office of the Provost

Missouri State's Meyer Library and fountain, viewed from the construction at Blunt Hall
Photo by Kevin White/Missouri State University

The View from Blunt Hall

Dr. Tamera Jahnke gives us the latest on the construction. Plus, Dr. Razib Iqbal shares news about the ROSE program.

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If you’ve walked the south side of campus during the past year, you’ve noticed that it has “big construction” energy, largely thanks to a landmark renovation and expansion of Blunt Hall.

We caught up with Dr. Tamera Jahnke, dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences (CNAS), which calls Blunt Hall home, to learn about the status of this project.

The Latest on Blunt Hall

Dr. Tamera Jahnke, standing on the construction platform for Blunt Hall with a view of campus beneath her.
CNAS Dean Dr. Tamera Jahnke, seen here at the Blunt Hall construction site, filled us in on the status of this project. (Photo by Kevin White/Missouri State University)

“Things are going well,” Jahnke says. She anticipates that people might start moving small pieces into the building’s addition — the new section that stretches east toward Plaster Stadium — by the end of this year. Once the addition is complete, the dean’s office will move in, and there will be space for something CNAS has never had before: departmental suites. For the first time, Jahnke says, the offices for academic units will be housed together, so that “everyone, especially students, can find departments more easily.”

The addition will also house a new graduate student area, where all graduate students will have desks. There will be new study rooms and collaborative student spaces as well. With such an expanded footprint, graduate students who are serving as teaching assistants will be able to book rooms in Blunt Hall for their office hours — the kind of efficiency that makes this project such a quality-of-life upgrade.

In the addition, you can expect plenty of windows. “We’ll have a lot of natural light,” Jahnke says. “And we worked with our biology faculty to make sure that the new windows will be safe for birds.” They’ll have small dots or lines that discourage birds from flying into them.

Ongoing construction at Blunt Hall
Jahnke says that the Blunt Hall addition will include plenty of natural light. The designers worked with biology faculty to select windows that will be safe for birds. (Photo by Kevin White/Missouri State University)

Navigating the Construction

This fall, there will be classes in Blunt Hall, even though construction is ongoing. Some faculty have temporarily moved to different offices. CNAS has posted QR codes around the building; if you’re looking for someone’s office, scan the QR code to get the latest update on their office location.

While the first moves into the Blunt Hall addition are just months away, renovations will continue through spring 2026. The project is happily on track, but completing something of this scale while continuing to hold classes and conduct research requires a deliberate pace.

Still, as Jahnke says, “It’s all very exciting.”

Around Campus…

A group of ROSE participants and faculty, smiling and gathered for a group photo
This summer, 11 middle and high school teachers engaged in research and professional development with Missouri State’s computer science faculty. (Photo courtesy of Missouri State University’s computer science department.)

This summer, Missouri State hosted 11 teachers who came to campus to work with computer science faculty. They were part of the Computer Science Research Opportunity for Smart Environments program, known as ROSE. It’s funded through a six-figure grant from the National Science Foundation and led by Dr. Razib Iqbal, associate professor of computer science and principal investigator on the ROSE grant.

ROSE participants developed original research projects and classroom activities for their students. On July 19, they presented their projects. Iqbal says the event marked “the successful completion of the NSF ROSE Research Experience for Teachers second-year summer professional development workshop. Eleven dedicated middle and high school STEM teachers began their journey by participating in four computer science research projects throughout the 2024–25 academic year.”

Provost Dr. John Jasinski (left), seen here with ROSE participant Kevin Mouser (center) and principal investigator Dr. Razib Iqbal (right), calls the ROSE celebration on July 19 “a tremendous experience.” (Photo courtesy of Missouri State University’s computer science department.)

During the teachers’ six-week summer session with Missouri State faculty, they not only engaged in professional development; they were also empowered to think like researchers.

“Their contributions to faculty-led research projects have already yielded novel results, and they have prepared innovative classroom integration plans that will equip their students for future challenges,” Iqbal says. “They’re working with critical areas like artificial intelligence, machine learning, cybersecurity and the internet of things.”

Provost Dr. John Jasinski, who visited with the teachers about the program and their projects, says the July 19 event was “a tremendous experience.”

“When we think about the impact that these teachers will have as they go back to their classrooms and introduce students to new concepts, it really drives home the importance of what our faculty contribute to our region,” Jasinski says.