Closed for renovation

A look at what comes next for Kerns Religious Life Center and its displaced inhabitants

Religion, philosophy, and uni­versity core classes are finding new homes this semester. This is because on February 1, Kerns Religious Life Center will be officially closed to both students and faculty.

After serving the campus for almost a century, originally housing the Rudolph Memorial Library before the construction of Blackmore, Kerns (like Loy Auditorium) is nearing the end of its life. But many working inside Capital still see Kerns’ potential and importance in the future.

As the Chimes reported last se­mester, Kerns sustained extensive water damage over the summer resulting in a mold problem that forced the religion and philosophy departments to relocate their offices.

However, last semester, classes and worship services still took place in Kerns and despite the vacancy of the second floor and some extraneous noise as crews worked to remove mold in the basement it seemed as though things were normal.

This semester, the health risks to students and faculty were too great to ignore and therefore the administration has ordered a relocation of all classes and organizational activities from Kerns so as to allow a clean-up of the building.

Total cost of renovations is es­timated at $1.5 million and it is likely Kerns will not reopen before 2013. Plans to renovate include mold cleanup and cosmetic repairs to the building on all floors as well as replacing the roof and possibly removing the atrium.

Although most classes have been successfully relocated to other building including the Conservatory and Battelle, there was less focus on relo­cating the organizations that also called Kerns home.

At the front of this struggle to find space is Pastor Amy Oehlschlaeger, who leads Sunday morning service and Wednesday morning chapel.

Oehlschlaeger, along with the university provost, is in communication with Trinity Seminary and their Dean Dr. Binau to allow some Capital student-run organizations to keep operating.

“Trinity will be hosting all of our worship services,” Oehlschlaeger said. “I hope that all of you will ‘cross the street’ with us.”

Oehlschlaeger fears that any students who were hesitant at coming to service at Kable chapel will be even more hesitant in going just off campus.

“But we’re hoping that students at the commons could then get more involved since it’s a little bit closer,” Oehlschlaeger said.

Although the relocation of all religious services to Trinity isn’t ideal, it’s the best plan available. Other pos­sible locations would have been Schnei­der Multipurpose Room, The Bridge of Learning, Huntington Recital Hall, and Mees Auditorium. All of these locations are constantly being used by various departments therefore not allowing Pas­tor Amy the realistic option of holding a normal service at Capital.

For the time being, Sunday morning Lutheran Liturgy services (10:45 a.m.) and Wednesday morning chapel (10 a.m.) will be held in Scheck Chapel at Trinity (next to the Holocaust memorial) with the last service in Kable being held the 25th.

There will be guides posted be­tween Kerns and Trinity to guide stu­dents who are confused about how to get to Schenk or Trinity.

Catholic Mass and Candlelight are also being moved to Trinity, except in the Gloria Dei Worship Center rather than in Schenk. Both Mass and Candle­light will be held at their normal times, the only change is the location.

The organization still having problems with locating a place to func­tion is Cru, which has not secured any permanent space to operate in after Kerns is shut down.

Oehlschlaeger will be having a “Farewell to Kable” service including Chapel Choir this Wednesday during chapel.

Also taking place is a Kerns photo contest where Oehlschlaeger is encouraging students to take photos of Kerns, or of them in and around Kerns, showing their favorite memories of the building.