REGENT TO GET NEW JOURNALISM, THEATER COMPLEX.(VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON)

Byline: MICHELLE MIZAL-ARCHER Staff writer

KEMPSVILLE - A new communications and arts building planned for Regent University will offer its graduate students everything from writing in an open newsroom to filming on an on-campus back lot.

``It's a building where we want to become first-class journalists, film-makers and first-class thinkers,'' said Michael R. Smith, chair of the school of journalism at the university. ``Even the architecture suggests people who appreciate quality,'' he said.

Last month, the City Council unanimously approved a request to rezone about 9 acres of undeveloped land slated for residential use on the campus to build the Georgian-style, brick building.

The building's project manager, Richard W. Jemiola, said the bid will be opened next month for the facility's general contractors. He said he will not disclose the project's total cost until after a contractor is chosen. University officials plan to finish the building's design by the end of March, start construction sometime after that and complete the project by the fall semester of 2002, Jemiola said.

That would also be the time when university officials plan to launch a graduate program in technical theater, said David V. Jager-Walker, the university's associate professor of theater arts.

He said the building's 750-seat theater and smaller ``experimental'' theater, where students can move audience seats and stage platforms, will allow graduate students to study the technical aspects of the theater, such as stage and sound setting.

Jager-Walker also said the two movie theaters in the complex and a back lot, where facades and street scenes can be filmed, also will help expand the university's theater program. The lot will be fenced in and will be attached to the new building, he said.

Smith said he also expects the new facility to help expand the university's free-lance writing program. Last year, university officials decided not to have a campus paper and instead have their journalism students free-lance with various newspapers and magazines across the nation.

The newsroom will be located on the second floor of the building and will have adequate book shelves, computers and Internet access, Smith said.

Classes for theater and arts are being held in a building where professors teach psychology, business and education so university officials welcome a building that would allow more room for programs to grow.

``This will be a place where people will be re-energized by being in a place dedicated to their field,'' Smith said. ``You have this first-class place with state-of-the-art equipment. This place will contribute to motivation and excitement.''