The opening of the Union brought big changes to the entire campus — especially to the Saddlemire Student Services building. Many student organizations packed up and moved out of Saddlemire to the Union.

The University Bookstore has also moved out of the building. All of this moving has created a large amount of space in Saddlemire for other programs.

The computer lab located on the second floor of Saddlemire has been moved back to the Union. The space is now being used as the center for the Blackboard Program.

The Office of Multicultural Affairs remains on the fourth floor. While the Residence Life Technology center has moved to the fouth floor and is now on the same floor as the rest of Residence Life.

Bob Waddle, assistant vice president of capital planning, explained that a lot is involved in the moving process.

First, all the presidents and deans put together and prioritize their capital needs. Next,, capital planning has an advisory meeting to make decisions about the move.

“Not all that much really moved out of the building, there were just not enough student offices,” Waddle said. “With the Union we have been able to offer a lot of space and that’s been a real improvement.”

Other changes were made in South Hall has also seen it’s share of changes now that the Union has opened. While the Union was being constructed, South Hall was used for temporary holding space.

The space has now been given back to various departments within South Hall.

The biggest changes happening in Saddlemire are on the ground floor where the University Bookstore used to be located. The space is now home to the Center for Applied Technologies and a work area for architecture design and drafting.

The Center for Applied Technologies was started by the University two years ago. The program is the primary source of the University’s outreach efforts. It’s mission is to provide affordable use of advanced technology to both the city and the University communities.

“We have equipment here that no University in the country has,” said Joseph Catalano, executive director of the center. The center was located in the Technology Building but was running out of space.

“We were literally bursting at the seams, and since then [the move] we have added more equipment,” Catalano said.

Through a program called FLAAR, the center is able to receive their equipment for free.

The FLAAR program presents evaluations of large format printers, scanners and digital cameras. The manufactures of this equipment send their new products to this program so that they can be evaluated and posted on the FLAAR Web site.

Most of the equipment that they have are large format digital printers.

One of these printers is the Ixiaz Giclee Printer. It is one of the best fine art printers. Each printer costs about $70,000, but through FLAAR the center received it for free.

The equipment is some of the most advanced that you can have for digital imaging.

The key piece of equipment is the Cruse Reprographic Scanner. This scanner is capable of scanning three dimensional objects, adding depth to the objects.

Catalano is hopeful that students, especially those in art and interior design will take advantage of the technology.

“We are trying very hard to make this technology available for faculty and students for academic purposes,” Catalano said. “We hope as many students as possible use this technology for their portfolios.”

The center will be able to give students an opportunity to use this equipment at 25 percent of the cost of a private company.

Catalano stresses that the center was not created to make money, but instead to provide the students and faculty with better equipment. The charges pay for staffing and other operational costs.