Photo Potpourri: CHAPTER 24Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology campus

Monday, June 10, 2024

CHAPTER 24
Rose-Hulman Institute
of Technology campus

After two visits to Hanover College in southern Indiana in 2011, I didn't think I would be more impressed by another campus I would visit on the “game day” tour. But it did happen on this visit to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, which was developed on 120 acres of land formerly owned by the Hulman family of Terre Haute — the Hulmans of Indianapolis 500-Mile Race fame.

It was homecoming weekend at Rose-Hulman, and the atmosphere on campus resembled that of a festival.

Many alumni returned for homecoming weekend, gathering on game day in various sections of the student center, academic buildings and even tents set up in the tailgating area. Grills and games were set up everywhere, and kids had a fun area to enjoy activities outside the stadium.

Rose-Hulman has gone by different names since its founding in the late 19th century. It started in the city proper as male-students-only Terre Haute School of Industrial Science and, before it even opened in 1883, its name changed to Rose Polytechnic Institute, named for its founder, Chauncey Rose, a businessman successful in milling, real estate and the railroad industry.

In the 1920s, when the school outgrew its inner-city quarters, it moved to the current location just north of U.S. 40 at the east end of the city limits. After the Hulman family turned over the assets of the Hulman Foundation to the school in 1971, the name changed to its current Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. It wasn't until 1991 that the Board of Managers made the decision to begin accepting female students.

It was founded in 1874 with only three bachelor’s degree programs. It has since grown to twelve academic departments with over thirty undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, and engineering management, leading to bachelor's and master's degrees.

Today, Rose-Hulman’s most popular undergraduate degree programs by far are mechanical engineering (25.9%) and computer science (20.3%), according to the school’s website. Filling out the top five are chemical engineering (9.3%), computer engineering (8.8%) and a tie between mathematics and electrical/electronics engineering (both 6.9%).

The school also has eight master’s degree programs and through 2021, according the school’s Wikipedia entry, had been ranked first among engineering colleges that do not offer a doctorate degree by U.S. News & World Report for 24 consecutive years. Each individual program assessed had also been ranked first since the magazine began publishing individual rankings. These programs are the Chemical, Civil, Computer, Electrical, Mechanical, and Biomedical Engineering programs.

Rose-Hulman has an endowment of $271.3 million as of 2024, according to College Raptor.

Aesthetically speaking, the campus has steadily blossomed into the impressive visual spectacle that it is today. Visitors drive right into the heart of the academic center when they arrive on campus, the stunning and modern glass facade of Hatfield Hall (home of the school's arts, entertainment and culture center) grabbing your attention on the right.

But it’s the scenic twin-waters campus core — Speed Lake and Scum Pond (latter name notwithstanding) — that can make you linger and explore for as long as you have time to do it. Anchoring Speed Lake at its west end is White Chapel, which opened in 2001 and was named for John and Elizabeth White whose lead gift of $1.5 million made the structure possible.

Even Cook Stadium, where the school’s Fightin’ Engineers team plays its home football contests, has a stunning backdrop — the expansive Hawthorn Park with its tall, thick forested trees in plain view of fans sitting on the home side of the stadium’s Phil Brown Field. The school’s Sports and Recreation Center, built in 1997 and the primary indoors varsity and intramural athletics facility (housing the parquet-floor Hulbert Arena, an indoor track and the aquatics center) is a striking architectural neighbor to the stadium’s west.

It was tough picking the right lakeside scene image to lead off the post, and I knew early on I would lead off this post with a lakeside scene. I went with a selection that I was able to get only by the kindness of a Hulman Memorial Union maintenance staff employee, who saw me with my camera and appreciated my endeavor. She let me into the cafeteria — where visitors are not normally allowed when students are dining there. That was the only place I could finagle this composition, lucking out with the individuals seated along the lake, the solitary one on the bench in the foreground, and several on the hill on the other side. So to the employee who made that shot possible, thank you, whoever you are.

In August 2017, Rose-Hulman announced it had reached an agreement to acquire more than 1,100 acres of additional Hulman land south of the current campus across U.S. 40.

“This is a game-changer for Rose-Hulman,” institute President Jim Conwell said in making the announcement. “It increases the size of the institute’s property more than sixfold, offering the opportunity for Rose-Hulman to imagine new possibilities to enhance and support existing educational opportunities for our students and develop new ones that will keep us at the forefront of science, engineering and mathematics education for decades to come.”

The land transaction came on the 100th anniversary of the Hulman family’s initial 1917 donation of a 123-acre farm tract to the school on which Rose-Hulman operates today. A subsequent transfer of the assets of the Hulman Foundation to the institute in 1971 resulted in the former Rose Polytechnic’s emergence as Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

The new property, which includes the former home to Tony and Mary Hulman’s daughter Mari Hulman George, stretches south to Indiana State Road 42. It includes a large residence as well as a historic family lodge, a number of outbuildings, and acres of farmland and forested terrain.

In March 2024, Rose-Hulman announced its had made it first use of the land by developing an entrepreneurial ecosystem called Innovation Grove, which will feature the relocation of Rose-Hulman Ventures, currently on Rose-Hulman’s South Campus about six miles from the main campus, and the addition of other new amenities to provide students with additional internships and hands-on experiences to gain the skills needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world, the school said in a news article on its website.

A long-term vision for Innovation Grove is to further leverage Rose-Hulman faculty expertise, student ingenuity, and industry partnerships to fuel economic growth in the Wabash Valley, the news article said.

To view a full gallery of images from my visit to Rose-Hulman, follow the link in this sentence.

Above: A scenic drive entering campus from U.S. 40.

Above and below are two other points of landscaped beauty on campus, at least for this homecoming weekend.

Above and next four below: Hatfield Hall, the performance arts and culture center, including the 600-seat theater.

Above: The backside of Moench Hall.

Above: The campus water tower; in the background is Hadley Hall, home of the offices of the school president and dean of faculty and office of institutional research.

Above: The stairway leading to lower campus.

Above and below: A plaza (above) outside Lakeside Hall (below), a residence hall on the far northwest end of campus.

Above: The John T. Myers Center for Technological Research With Industry.

Above: A grove of trees already showing their autumn colors.

Above: A pathway leading from the main campus drive toward the backside of Hatfield Hall (background, right) and up toward the fraternity portion of campus.

Above and first two photos below: Sculpture installations seen on different parts of campus. The second one below is of interest because, at least during my visit in 2013, the Fightin’ Engineers were using an elephant as their mascot.

Above: Olin Hall and Advanced Learning Center. I would have loved to have played more with the reflection on those windows, but the angle from the side closest to the glass was looking straight into the sun when I got there.

Above and next several below: More views and perspectives of Scum Pond (foreground above) and Speed Lake.

Above and below: Percopo Residence Hall overlooks Speed Lake with White Chapel on the right above ... and close up below.

Above: I've seen several citations refer to Speed Lake as a reflection pond; here's one example why. This is a single-frame image, not a high-dynamic range melding of multiple images.

Above and next four below: Views outside of and looking out from the student union, which in 2013 was still called Hulman Memorial Union. The facility was remodeled extensively and expanded (to 104,000 square feet) with a massive glass front over a two-year period, reopening in May 2018. At that time, it was dedicated with the new name Massallem Union in honor of Mike and Linda Massallem. The couple provided the lead gift of $9 million in the $25 million remodel project. Mike Massallem, a native of Gary, Ind., is a 1974 chemical engineering graduate of Rose-Hulman who became chairman and chief executive officer of California-based Edwards Lifesciences.

The John A. Logan Library (above) and an interestingly designed stairway (below) leading to one of the many campus landscape undulations.

The front of Moench Hall (above) and a capture of one of its sides (below) when late-afternoon tree branches and leaves are spattering shade throughout.

Above and below: Two views of Deming Residence Hall.

I don't recall what the building above is. Below is a closeup of the bell to the left of the building.

Above: Around the corner from Olin Hall, some people conversed near a small plaza and yet another institutional sculpture.

Above: The view toward the Sports and Recreation Center from the hill near Deming Hall. Closer views of the Sports and Recreation Center exterior are provided in the first two photos below.