New School Year, New Forensic Lab!
Welcome back to our MSUFAL blog post series after our summer hiatus! This summer truly sped by and the new school year has already brought a number of changes.
Firstly, while it’s been a long time coming, we can announce that we have officially moved to our new space in Giltner Hall! The move went without a hitch (…apart from one graduate student who had to save her misplaced apartment keys from the surplus pile…) and we are beyond thankful to MSU’s Infrastructure Planning and Facilities (IPF) for all their help in the process.
Of course, we are certainly going to miss East Fee Hall (and its abundant parking spaces), which has been our home for so long. As Dr. Sauer mentioned in our interview last spring, Fee truly fostered the growth of the forensic anthropology program at MSU, as we slowly attained more space and built strong relationships with the medical and anatomy departments on campus. Many graduate students have spent a late night or two in those halls, and I doubt they will forget all they’ve learned there any time soon.
But the move to Giltner has been extremely positive, bringing us closer to the other biological anthropology faculty in the building and closer to Baker Hall, the core space of the Department of Anthropology. Not to mention that it’s also brought us a lot closer to the restaurants on Grand River Avenue, which comes in handy at lunchtime! But, truly, the space is Giltner is much more centralized, helping us streamline casework and allowing easy communication across the lab, whether we are working on research or celebrating birthdays with donuts.
To honor this move, we would like to introduce all of you to our new space!
The true pièce de résistance would have to be the centralized lab. Unlike in Fee, Giltner has brought all of our lab spaces into one area, which is essential to maintaining the security and privacy necessary for forensic casework. Altogether, this space is made up of the wet lab, the dry lab, the photography and radiography room, and the lab director’s office. With these spaces together, every case can be processed in the wet lab, analyzed in the dry lab, and documented in the photography and radiography room – all without having to leave the room or the watchful eye of the lab director, Dr. Carolyn Isaac. This is a big change from our old lab at Fee, which was spaced out across the hall.
Radiography & Photo Room 
Processing Lab (or Wet Lab)
And a mere stone’s throw away is the new forensic classroom! Able to house up to 30 students at once, the classroom provides space for teaching and hands-on learning for both our graduate and undergraduate students. While the short walk to the new classroom has already proved convenient for our lab members, we are sure undergraduate students are extremely excited as well, as they no longer have to hike all the way to the south of campus to learn forensic anthropology and osteology!
Finally, we have our communal graduate student space one room away from the centralized lab, which doubles as the lab lunchroom and kitchen. Every graduate student gets their own desk and study space here – and is only two steps away from the fridges and microwave (a graduate student paradise if I may say so myself!). This proximity is fantastic for graduate students participating in casework and helping to teach undergraduate classes in the forensic classroom!
With this new space comes our second announcement – the forensic anthropology lab is officially back in person this semester! So as we introduce the space to you, we can assure you that we’ve been excited to take full advantage of the Giltner lab this semester. We are still adhering to MSU’s current mask policy on campus to lessen the spread of COVID-19, but graduate students are fully approved to assist with casework again in person and are excited to be back! Plus, we were able to host our first in-person laboratory meeting two short weeks ago in over a year and a half! Having the lab back together is a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel for us all.
We hope you enjoyed seeing our new lab space as much as we’ve enjoyed using it! Stay tuned for our next blog in two weeks!
Authored by: Rhian Dunn
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