A NEW HOME AWAY FROM HOME

Hermann Viets Tower, a living-learning community for MSOE students, officially opened its doors to students in August 2021.

Formerly Roy W. Johnson Residence Hall, the $37 million renovation and expansion was completed thanks to continuing philanthropic support. The living-learning community encourages academic success and gives students with similar academic, social and personal interests the opportunity to live together, collaborate and share experiences. The building is named in honor of the late Dr. Hermann Viets, MSOE’s fourth president.

NEW FEATURES OF HERMANN VIETS TOWER

• 48 new bedrooms added (four new rooms per floor).

• 6 ADA rooms and a single ADA accessible bathroom on each floor.

• Housing capacity increased from 450 beds to 552 beds.

• New bathrooms on each floor.

• New air conditioning unit in each bedroom.

• A full kitchen for students.

• Bicycle storage.

• Two-story collaboration hubs constructed in a southern-facing, glass enclosed addition overlooking the Milwaukee skyline.

• One study commons located on each floor.

“Viets Tower was designed to support MSOE’s hands-on, application-oriented approach to learning,” said President John Walz. “The reimagined spaces promote a sense of community in a lively, flexible and safe environment that integrates living and learning in a way that enhances and supports student success.”

Living-learning communities (LLCs) are unique housing groups that allow students to extend their learning beyond the classroom and enable the university to continue fostering the growth of the MSOE Mindset, which identifies graduates as leaders of character; responsible professionals; passionate learners; and value creators. LLCs create comprehensive in- and out-of-class learning environments that offer heightened levels of student engagement with faculty, peers and their own learning.

“Students with similar interests such as gaming (MAGE), E-sports, robotics, music, outdoors, nursing and Women in Technology are grouped together on various floors,” said Nick Seidler, coordinator of residence life operations. “This helps create cohorts of similar interests to build community and enhance friend and social groups.”

Students in the Carter Academy and the University Scholars Honors Program also live in LLCs specific to their programs.

“The moments I have with my peers on a daily basis bring me joy and I know I’m going to remember and cherish them in the future,” said Ashanti Creech, a freshman in the Carter Academy who is majoring in biomedical engineering. “If you need anything there is always someone there who will listen and help out however they can.”

Regarded as a high-impact educational practice, LLCs have shown demonstrated impact on student engagement, retention, graduation and personal success by integrating students into a community of like-minded learners. The new space will help MSOE to continue attracting highcaliber students from around the globe, improve student satisfaction, and give them a residential experience to match the quality of the education they are receiving.

Photo above, from left: MSOE President John Walz, Regents Eckhart Grohmann and Rev. Pamela Viets, and Mayor Tom Barrett officially open Hermann Viets Tower on Aug. 20, 2021.

BY THE NUMBERS

276 rooms

482 residents

324 freshmen

142 sophomores

10 juniors

6 seniors

16 states and territories represented

6 countries

16 classes held in Fall Quarter

Logan Luedtke, the 9th floor resident assistant, punches in a code to automatically unlock and open the door to his room. The electrical engineering major devised this fun and creative system himself. Once inside, he often heads straight to his hammock.

“I like that Viets Tower has lots of study spaces. It really creates a lot of versatility depending on your needs that day,” said Abigail Gventer, who is majoring in mechanical engineering. “There are quieter areas to study and nonquiet ones if you are working in groups which I really enjoy. I never get tired of where I study in Viets Tower because of the many options.”

Creech also takes advantage of the collaboration areas throughout the building. “There are really nice classrooms that you can go and study in [on the ground floor] whenever you need a quiet space and there’s an open area with plenty of tables that are great for collaboration. I typically use the common space on my floor for studying and homework, but I go down to the ground floor at least once a week for our Carter study group.”

As an upperclassman, Gventer had the option to live off campus. But following a year of living off campus due to the pandemic, she wanted to reconnect.

With reconnection as her goal, Gventer picked the right place to be. She now has 551 new friends to meet and endless memories to make in Viets Tower.

“When I was deciding where to live this year, I knew that I would want to live in one of the dorms because I would be much closer to everything on campus. I felt that living off campus would have been too much to adapt to as I was returning to campus this year. I also felt that the community within the dorms would make it a lot easier to reconnect with students on campus.”

THE FAVS

Air conditioning. That’s what you might guess is the Number One feature of Hermann Viets Tower according to students. However, that wasn’t mentioned at all when we asked three residents what their favorite features are:

Photo above: José Hall grabs a late night snack.

1: THE SNACK STORE

“The snack store. They have a great selection of food ranging from junk to semi healthy. It’s great for when you don’t have any time between class to stop by the CC and overall, extremely convenient.”

ASHANTI CREECH FRESHMAN, BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA

2: RESIDENT ROOM

My room. I am really happy with the furniture arrangement my roommate and I have. We have bunk beds which I think is perfect for the two of us. They allow for more room for the rest of our furniture and for us to have two fairly large study spaces on opposites sides of the room. It creates a bit of privacy for when we are studying and need to focus. The furniture is versatile and you can truly adapt it to your needs.”

ABIGAIL GVENTER SENIOR, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING CEDARBURG, WISCONSIN

Collaboration spaces on each residence hall floor provide places for students to hang out or study with friends.

3: GROUND FLOOR CLASSROOMS

“The ground floor, since students can reserve classrooms. For the first two weeks here, my friends and I had a movie night in a classroom every night. After one of our movie nights we decided to go down to the basement. We had just watched a horror movie, and it was after midnight. The elevator doors opened up to the bare concrete hallway with only one light on at the end of it. We left.”

LEVI PICARD FRESHMAN, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND

Members of MAGE, MSOE’s sci-fi, anime, gaming and chess club gather in a Viets Tower classroom.

Stay tuned: The 2022 Spring/ Summer edition of Dimensions will feature an in-depth look at the ground floor of Viets Tower and the collaborative work happening within!