Money has been in the process of being raised for the construction of a new student learning center the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Maynard Hogberg, professor of animal science, has been raising money for the learning center since 2006 along along with others. $7.1 million later, the Jeff and Deb Hansen Agriculture Student Learning center was born.

The vision for this project started about 15 years ago and has been tossed around back and forth ever since.

The center was funded through private donations and was sometimes hard, Hogberg said.

A major contributor to the project was the fraternity, Alpha Gamma Rho. An alumnus of the fraternity, Marvin Walters, who recently passed away, was a large benefactor for the facility.

Dakota Lueken, president of the chapter, said he believes that the center is an all around state of the art facility.

“The learning center can provide a lot of things for the agriculture students, especially animal science,” Lueken said. “It’s going to provide classrooms that students can get some hands-on learning, it can also just give the students another place to go and learn.”

With four classrooms, a large atrium and an even larger arena, students are guaranteed a good learning experience.

Currently, the center is under construction and it is expected to be finished around late November or early December. Classes in the new building will begin this spring semester.

A large part of reason the center is being built is for recruiting purposes, Hogberg said.

“There will be also be some youth activities here, like statewide 4-H and FFA activities,” Hogberg said. “So one thing it will do is serve as a recruiting magnet to bring students to Iowa State from all over the state, as well as other states around us.”

Classes in the new center will be laboratory type courses where students will be working with animals. Students will also be able to learn in the classroom, then walk over and do more hands-on learning in the arena.

The four classrooms have movable walls, allowing for the transformation of two larger rooms.

Hogberg said the arena can be used for many different purposes, such as banquets and shows, but it will mainly be used for the study of animals.

“The primary benefit is so students have a student and animal interactionary here,” Hogberg said. “So if you’re looking on working how to work safely and humanely around animals, that can be taught here.”

Another benefit will be being able to work with animals during the winter months, when there would normally be snow and ice on the ground.

Branden Zuck, senior in animal science and president of Block and Bridle, said he feels that the center will be very beneficial for students.

“The Learning Center will host many events for the department of animal science, as well as the Block and Bridle Club,” said Zuck. “As the departmental club, the Block and Bridle Club provides students with hands-on opportunities to learn about the livestock industry. Additionally, the classroom space will be utilized by animal science classes, as well as other classes within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.”

The agriculture center will be located north of the Ames/ISU Ice Arena on the south side of Mortensen Road.