In a bold move to enhance academic collaboration and streamline resources, Willamette University has begun relocating several majors and programs to new buildings across campus, aiming to foster a more integrated learning environment. These buildings include Tokyo International University of America (TIUA), Smullin Hall, Atkinson Annex, Atkinson Graduate School of Management’s (AGSM) Seeley G. Mudd Building, and Gatke Hall.
TIUA, located in Kaneko, consists of conference rooms, classrooms and a large auditorium, all of which were formerly used by students studying abroad from Japan. As stated in Willamette’s information page on TIU, the relationship between the two schools began in 1989, when TIU students were offered a 10-month-long study abroad program at Willamette. This is known as the American Studies Program (ASP). This program continued strong until the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, halting ASP for three consecutive years. As the program returned after COVID, the number of Japanese study-abroad students declined drastically, leaving TIUA unattended. With few TIUA students attending Willamette, TIU handed the management of ASP over to WU.
Jo Kozuma, the current director of the English Language and American Studies program, was welcomed to Willamette with the responsibility to relaunch the ASP, and in doing so, changed the name of ASP to English Language and American Studies program (ELAS). According to Kozuma, TIU students had moved out of TIUA classrooms in the fall of 2023 due to heating and cooling issues and low occupancy in classrooms. “I was teaching with my gloves on because it was so, so cold. I kept mentioning that we needed to move. The facility was too big for our program,” Kozuma recalled. In the spring semester of 2023, all TIU classes relocated to Smullin Hall. With only 17 TIU students this year, they have built a tight community in Smullin with a designated TIU student lounge.
While TIUA was emptied out due to low occupancy, the Mudd and Atkinson Annex buildings were having the opposite problems, resulting in the plans to move all undergraduate and graduate business classes into TIUA. David Sundby, the assistant dean of students, plays an active role in the AGSM. Outlining the reason for initiating the move, Sundby stated, “Business has become the second most popular major of expressed interest by students, especially when it comes to our MBA programs.” With nearly 70 undergraduate business major and minor students combined as of August 2024, the Atkinson Annex became an overflow of business students. The large sum of students prompted the move to TIUA.
Ashley Nixon, associate dean of AGSM, said, “The goal is to have everyone in our business programs moved into TIUA by next semester.” All business staff, faculty, recruiters and career managers will move to second-floor office suites of TIUA, while first-floor classrooms will be occupied by business classes.
Additionally, the news of Kaneko gaining more student traffic has created increased excitement about the possibility of Kaneko Cafe reopening. The cafe, once an alternative food hall to Goudy, has been closed since the pandemic. According to Nixon, there is no set plan to open the Kaneko Cafe for the spring semester of 2025, but there are conversations about the cafe potentially opening next fall.
Shouvik Ahmed Antu (’26) is a second-year Kaneko RA and a third-year Kaneko resident. When commenting on the possibility of the Kaneko Cafe reopening, he said, “We have not heard anything official about the cafe opening, but it would be wonderful. I would eat breakfast that I don’t get to eat right now.”
This shuffle of buildings has also affected Gatke Hall and exercise science students. As the business program moves out of Atkinson Annex and the Mudd building into TIUA in the spring semester, the exercise science program is moving into the Annex. “Exercise science has half the annex now, but they’re too big for that. They need the whole thing, so they were working on finding a spot that is big enough,” Nixon said. This reshuffling will result in the Mudd building and Gatke Hall remaining unoccupied for a duration of time.
As of fall 2024, general plans have been made to update the interior of Mudd, leading to the possibility of a new school moving into the space. However, these plans are still up in the air. As Nixon concluded, “We are just trying to match the size, need, and to allow the move out of spaces that need a little bit more construction work within the next few years.”