Institute of Behavioral Science celebrates new home

CU’s Institute of Behavioral Science has a reason to celebrate: it has a new home.

The institute held a conference Thursday to involve the CU community and welcome their new space, a building located on 15th street and Grandview Avenue.

The meeting was held in the main conference room of the new building and brought directors of peer institutes from Stanford, Duke, Michigan and UCLA to address an audience of faculty, staff and students.

The IBS houses the Natural Hazards Center and the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence as well as other research programs dedicated to health, society and population studies, which were previously spread out over nine different buildings.

Jane Menken, director of the institute, said she hopes this new cohesion can improve the programs.

“We believe that bringing all of IBS under one roof is the catalyst for even better research in the future,” Menken said.

According to CU’s facilities management website, the new IBS building is over 50,000 square feet and cost $14 million to build.

Richard Jessor, former director of the institute and moderator of the symposium, said the bulk of the funding was provided by the university with the institute providing a portion from their grants.

Jessor said he has been a part of the IBS for 60 years.

“In 1957 the institute was founded,” Jessor said. “We occupied our first building, a small remodeled church near the corner of Broadway and University.”

Jessor said that the new building is already helping IBS achieve their goals.

“For the last thirty years I’ve been trying to get everyone under one roof,” Jessor said. “Now we have space for informal exchange, new collaborative activities. People are interacting who were separated.”

Don Boroian, a 21-year-old political science junior, visited the building recently and said he welcomes its addition to campus.

“The university needs to continue to grow and it will attract new students,” Boroian said.

Chancellor Phil Di Stefano said he praises the work of the IBS and is enthusiastic about the new building.

“To me the Institute of Behavioral Science has always been ahead its time as a role model for the interdisciplinary research on our campus, called for in Flagship 2030, our strategic plan,” Di Stefano said. “Today we’re celebrating a real success story – the bringing together of scientists separated for decades in multiple buildings.”

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Thomas Cuffe at [email protected].