The Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology may have only moved across the street, but the transition from Monitor Hall to Cramer Hall was a significant one for both the department and the university.

Faculty, students and alumni gathered outside of Cramer Hall on Friday to dedicate their new building, which they said is welcome after 30 years in Monitor Hall.

"We now have a facility that is commensurate with the quality of the program," said Jack Brooks, dean of the College of Health Sciences. "It's a state-of-the-art clinical facility for students and clients."

The clinics are more modern, with technological advances not seen in Monitor Hall. The new building has much more space for the department, doubling the number of individuals its clinic can serve, said Kim Halula, associate dean of the College of Health Sciences and interim chair of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology.

Speaking with Brooks and Halula at the dedication was University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild.

The Rev. Walter Stohrer, adjunct associate professor of philosophy, gave the blessing and dedication.

Halula gave Wild a picture of Monitor Hall in memory of the building that had housed the program for three decades.

"This is a wonderful occasion and, we'd all agree, long overdue," Wild said. "We've finally done it and I believe we've done it with class."

Wild also addressed the implications of the move from the entire university's standpoint.

"To improve a department is to improve the university," Wild said. "This is going to benefit a lot of people in the community and allow them to live richer, fuller lives."

The department has lived up to the university's Jesuit standards of service by helping those in need since its beginning in 1923, Wild said.

Wild's support of the department pleased faculty members. Brooks said he was especially thankful to Wild "for a commitment to changing 30 years of history."

According to Halula, the department moved Aug. 1 into its new space, which was vacated by the dental school. The building was renamed Cramer Hall after Harriet Barker Cramer, who donated what amounts to $40 million in current dollars in the first few decades of the university.

"The building has come full circle today," Halula said.

The new facility cost $2.3 million, with money coming from the university, government grants and donations from alumni, Halula said.

Faculty see the money as going to good use.

"I have seen new facilities elsewhere, but I haven't seen one that surpasses this one in quality," Brooks said. "We're witnessing a whole new future for the program."

Students also were pleased with the renovation.

"It's very exciting and very rewarding to see the hard work of several people culminate," said Maria Fratangelo, a second year graduate student in speech pathology and audiology and a 2004 Marquette graduate. "The current students will benefit tremendously from the new facility both academically and clinically."

Halula said students and faculty are not the only parties that will benefit.

"It's an exciting time with a new facility," she said. "Not only for students and faculty, but also for clients and the community."

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on October 11, 2005.