Templeton hall is one of Eastern’s newest and most diverse additions to Eastern’s campus. Its sprawling facility is designed to bring multiple different focuses of study under one place. Templeton is already becoming a place for learning, creativity and connection emphasized by the new art gallery and Clemen’s Recital Hall. Selah Curcuruto, a Psychology and Dance major as well as a Templeton scholar offered much insight on the importance of Templeton.
According to Curcuruto, Templeton serves a lot of purposes including math, music, philosophy, art and Templeton classes. Events are also being held there like “Mocktails and Mingling” that SAB hosted this semester. The auditorium in Templeton, Clemen’s Recital Hall, serves as a rehearsal space for a wide range of activities: choirs, band ensembles and dance are just some of the examples.
Professor Eunmin Woo, adjunct of Eastern’s Music department and head violin professor, emphasizes the usefulness of having Fowler, Eastern’s music department, so close to their performance space. Students and teachers alike used to have to lug instruments from Fowler all the way to McInnis just for rehearsals and performance days. Campus musicians also used to have to bargain with other departments about having to use McInnis auditorium. Clemen’s Recital Hall opens up a whole new space for the arts.
Before Templeton Hall was built, the Honors College didn’t have a central location of its own. Curcuruto explains, “Templeton classes were mainly held in Walton 3, or ‘Baby Baird’ as it’s nicknamed. But classes were also held in other buildings, HHC and Gough for example.”
Now with a specific home, the Templeton community is looking forward to how the new space can be used to further Templeton’s mission of “True, Good, and Beautiful,” but also use the space to show hospitality to the community. “As a Templeton student, I am excited for Templeton Hall to be a place of hospitality. I know, having talked to a lot of faculty members about it, that they don’t want it to become a space where we isolate ourselves. Instead, the idea is that we want to host, and in order to host well, we have to have a house!” Curcuruto said.
Templeton Hall provides new opportunities to all students, not just Templeton Honors students. It provides a place to study, to reflect, to enjoy art or to listen to music groups practice. For students like Curcuruto, this new building provides a setting to live out that calling of hospitality and truth.
