16 TOWER | FALL 2022 COMING SOON Newand renovated buildings will revitalize campus, creatingmore spaces for students, faculty and the community to collaborate, learn and perform. Wells-Rapp Center for Mallet Percussion Research The Wells-Rapp Center for Mallet Percussion Research, which opens this semester, includes a 2,100-square-foot performing space and rooms dedicated to KU’s specialized collections of rare marimbas, xylophones, vibraphones, bells, chimes, steel drums, and other mallet percussion instruments. This working facility – open to students, researchers, and the general public – allows access to play the instruments and view oneof-a-kind materials unique to the center. This world-class facility will make Berks County a destination for musicians and enthusiasts alike. The new center, designed for public access and public events, brings all these resources together in one place. Housing KU percussion studies in one place also allows students to have regular access to the collection of instruments, which are to be used for both practice and performance. The Wells-Rapp Center is named for emeriti faculty members and former music department chairs Richard G. Wells and Dr. Willis M. Rapp. Wells served on KU’s faculty between 1968–1997, and Rapp from 1986 –2013. DeLight E. Breidegam Building: Headquarters of the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center KU’s Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center is dedicated to preserving and celebrating Pennsylvania German folk culture, history, and language in a unique educational setting. After outgrowing its previous space, the Kutztown University Foundation committed to funding a new facility to adequately house and display the center’s library and archives. This $2.6 million, newly renovated, 10,000-square-foot facility includes a stateof-the-art research library. Open to students, faculty, visiting researchers, and the public, it allows access to its unique collection showcasing four centuries of the Pennsylvania German cultural presence in the region and affording community members the opportunity to conduct genealogical research. The center will continue to host popular community events such as Christmas and Easter on the Farm. Local businessman and Pennsylvania Dutch culture enthusiast DeLight E. Briedegam Jr. died in 2015. Together with his father, Delight Sr., he founded East Penn Manufacturing. Nancy Jean Stump Seiger ’54 Botanical Research Center The new botanical center, located next to Boehm Science building, will foster faculty and student research by offering controlled greenhouse environments, growth chambers, and a fully equipped headhouse. This facility will complement the current greenhouse in appearance, with the new structure featuring contemporary shading and climate control elements. In addition to housing the growth chambers and storage facilities, the headhouse will include spaces for researchers to prepare plants, record findings, and work collaboratively. Faculty and students alike will spend time in the new area, advancing botanical research in ways that will be appreciated far beyond the KU campus. This facility will be used in community education events for gardening and will complement research in regenerative organic agriculture associated with the new environmental studies program track. That research will benefit farmers locally, including KU’s partners at the Rodale Institute and beyond, as findings are circulated through publications and presentations. Nancy Jean StumpSieger ’54 is a lifelong educator and Berks County philanthropist whose generosity extends beyond KU to the community at large. She was awarded an honorary doctorate Dec. 18, 2021, during KU’s Fall Commencement Ceremony. 1 2 3 BY JILLIAN LOVEJOY
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