The College of Science is receiving a face lift with new computer and research labs totaling more than $1.5 million.

The college allocated $40,000 for a new computer lab and the National Science Foundation gave the college a $1.5 million grant for renovations in the Chemistry Department this semester.

The computers, which arrived in December and January, were just plugged in last week.

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Ami Ruffing, lab safety manager, said the new lab has 18 Power Macs for the use of all students in the college.

The lab became available in January, Robert Brenstein, Computer Information Specialist for the Chemistry and Biochemistry departments said.

The lab will be fully utilized next semester, Brenstein said. Switching over to computerized instruction does not happen overnight. It requires changes in curriculum.

The computer lab is located in the old Center for Electron Microscopy on the first floor in Neckers. Some classes are now using the computers, but some software is still needed, chemistry and biochemistry professor John Koropchak said. The labs should be fully operational within a couple of weeks.

The new computer lab is not the only change being made in the Chemistry Department, Koropchak said.

There are problems with some chemistry labs, Koropchak said.

The building is old, and temperature control is a problem, Koropchak said. Sometimes it gets really hot, and it is difficult to do chemistry under those conditions.

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Renovations made possible by the Science Foundation grant include upgrading air handling, which keeps vapors from being trapped in the labs; temperature controls to keep the labs at a constant temperature and redesigning the layout of the lab to better accommodate research.

These will be the first renovations ever done on the labs, Koropchak said.

The renovations are tentatively scheduled to start this summer and be completed by spring 1997. The labs are located on the third floor in the C wing of Neckers.