Biology student petitions for funding to innovate Lilly Hall – Purdue Exponent

A biology major at Purdue has started a petition that calls for an increase in funding for Lilly Hall of Life Sciences.

According to senior Samantha Leites petition, which is titled Make Lilly Hall Great Again, the building is described as being in poor condition and lacking in sufficient resources. Leite calls for an increased investment toward updating laboratory technologies and redesigning infrastructure to create an environment more conducive to learning.

The labs are far outdated and run-down, and the lecture halls barely have temperature controls, Leite said. Biology is the cornerstone of science and yet our biology majors at a top research university are using materials that are so outdated.

Alexandru Ivan, a sophomore in the College of Science, agreed with Leites sentiment.

Honestly, there's a lot of equipment such as the spectrophotometers which have begun to stop working on us, Ivan said. Computers are old and slow, which makes running bioinformatics programs and other high-intensity coding API's quite tedious.

Leite also described how her role as an ambassador for the College of Science inspired her to start the petition.

Im a biology ambassador, and I have to give tours of the building its embarrassing for me to take prospective students and their families around this building, Leite said. I started talking to members of the faculty and realized that nobodys ever said anything about the (lack of funding), so I thought 'why not me?'

Despite her dissatisfaction with the state of Lilly Hall, Leite stressed that she holds the departments faculty and students in high esteem.

We have such amazing faculty in the department, and we get such a great education from them they are great people and the students are so eager to learn, Leite said. But the faculty simply doesnt have the funding and materials to do more; theyre held back by the lack of resources. And why should students invest time in working hard if (the school) doesnt work hard to invest funds (into the department)?

Leites petition currently has 224 of the 500 supporters it needs to be delivered to President Mitch Daniels and a number of other administrators. Those who would like to sign the petition Make Lilly Hall Great Again can do so here.

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Biology student petitions for funding to innovate Lilly Hall - Purdue Exponent