Farewell to Twente Hall
The School of Social Welfare will move to a new home on the KU Lawrence campus this winter.
At the end of the fall semester, the KU School of Social Welfare will say goodbye to its longtime campus home at Twente Hall.
The School will relocate to Green Hall on the KU Lawrence campus at the beginning of the spring 2025 semester, moving into the newly renovated third floor of the building. Construction started this summer and will continue through the fall semester.
The renovated Green Hall space will provide a welcoming, long-term academic home for social work students on the KU Lawrence campus. Green Hall also houses the KU School of Law; the law school will be located on floors 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the building.
“This move will give the School of Social Welfare a student-centered space to continue our work of educating, training and supporting qualified, compassionate social workers,” said Michelle Carney, dean of the School of Social Welfare. “We look forward to the potential for collaboration with the School of Law in this new space.”
The new space at Green Hall will include:
- A dedicated classroom for the School of Social Welfare
- Dedicated study and gathering spaces for social work students
- Conference rooms
- Offices for Social Welfare faculty, staff, PhD students and researchers
The move will allow the university to complete needed repairs in Twente Hall while the building is unoccupied. There are no plans for the School of Social Welfare to return to Twente.
“During the Campus Master Plan process, Twente Hall was a building identified as lacking a sense of community and adequate study space,” said Mark Reiske, director of Facilities, Planning and Development. “While it is an academic home, the building has no actual classrooms. The migration of Social Welfare to Green Hall gives the school some essential academic amenities and helps ensure KU creates opportunities for collaboration and learning across disciplines. This is a great solution to multiple challenges.”
Stephen Mazza, dean of the KU School of Law, said housing the law and social work programs in the same building offers opportunities for collaboration.
"The School of Social Welfare’s move to Green Hall gives the two schools a greater opportunity to collaborate on issues that are important to the State of Kansas," Mazza said. "Both schools focus on serving the needs of children and the elderly in our community. Combining our efforts holds the promise for an even greater impact on society."
"Moreover, as legal research resources move to online formats, the School of Law was able to eliminate multiple copies of case reporters and otherwise consolidate its library collection. This freed up space to not only welcome the School of Social Welfare in the building, but also create new study spaces for students," Mazza said.
Twente Hall is one of the buildings slated for a reset – including future rehabilitation and repair – in the 2024 KU Campus Plan. The building will receive several repairs and updates as part of the reset, Reiske said.
“The nature of the Twente Hall building reset requires the building be unoccupied,” Reiske said. “The private restrooms in offices will be removed, and a lactation room and new public restrooms, including a single-use restroom, will be added. The changes will also include renovation of shared areas, corridors and stairways, and needed modernization of mechanical equipment, including air handlers, the elevator and safety systems.”
Community Open House on Oct. 18
Alumni, faculty, staff, students, community members and friends are invited to say goodbye to Twente Hall during Homecoming Weekend. The School of Social Welfare will host a Farewell to Twente Hall Open House on Friday, Oct. 18 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Farewell to Twente Hall Open House
Friday, Oct. 18, 2024
4:30-6:30 p.m.
Twente Hall
1545 Lilac Lane, Lawrence KS 66045
RSVP for the Farewell to Twente Hall Open House
This informal open house will include opportunities to tour the building, share memories, explore the building’s history, and visit with the KU School of Social Welfare community.
Share your Twente Hall memories
The School of Social Welfare is collecting Twente Hall memories for a crowdsourced online timeline. Alumni, faculty, staff, students, community members and friends are invited to share stories from their time in Twente Hall.
Submit your KU Social Welfare memories of Twente Hall – photos, written memories or videos – to add them to the timeline.
History of KU social work at Twente Hall
The KU School of Social Welfare moved into Twente Hall in 1974. The building – which originally opened in 1932 as Watkins Memorial Hospital – was renamed for Esther E. Twente (1895-1971), a longtime KU social work professor. Twente was the founder and first chair of the Social Work Department (1946-1957).
KU has offered an accredited Master of Social Work (MSW) degree since 1947, and a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree since 1972. The School launched its doctoral PhD program in 1981 and introduced a Doctor of Social Work (DSW) practice doctorate program in 2023.
In the 50 years since the School of Social Welfare moved into Twente Hall, the School’s programs have grown across the state of Kansas and beyond. KU social work students attend classes in Lawrence, at the KU Edwards Campus in Overland Park, at partnership sites in Pittsburg and Salina, and online through Jayhawk Global. In fall 2023, 563 degree-seeking students were enrolled across all programs (211 – BSW, 322 – MSW, 23 – DSW, 7 – PhD).