Creating our own “Field of Dreams” at East Lake Park.
Our communities in Rochester and Winona are fertile environments for education. We are stronger because we intertwine place and learning.
Education Village. Now that we have received the first funding installment from the State of Minnesota, we have selected the firm of Leo A. Daly to help us design the Education Village. We will establish a team to advise them as they outline our hopes and dreams for teacher education and develop planning documents to guide the construction. We are fortunate to have acquired the beautiful, historic Cathedral Elementary School, which will be integrated into the Ed Village designs.
Community Baseball Field. We are still in discussions with the City of Winona to create our own “Field of Dreams” at East Lake Park. Relocating baseball to East Lake Park will allow NCAA-level play to complement the superb women’s softball field already located there. The other major advantage for WSU is freeing up the current site for future university development, which is especially enticing now that the pedestrian tunnels are proceeding. We spent the summer listening to community suggestions and concerns and made adjustments accordingly. We will present our revised plans at a public forum in October.
Wireless at the Lake. Our IT department capitalized on an opportunity to collaborate with HBC, a local telecommunications firm, to bring Wi-Fi coverage to East Lake Winona. Anyone with a valid WSU account—students, employees, alumni, retirees—can now access coverage along the north side of East Lake Winona, from the Visitor’s Center on Huff Street to the softball field near Hamilton Street. Community members can access the Wi-Fi coverage through HBC. This partnership helps us expand the boundaries of our virtual community.
