Students, faculty, and staff arriving on campus for the start of the academic year will see new names on a few familiar buildings, and several new classrooms and other learning spaces.

UConn officials have been working to update the University’s printed and online campus maps to reflect the changes.

Some changes will be noticeable right away, including the new Laurel Hall sign in front of the structure formerly known as the Classroom Building, or the West Classroom Building. That building, which opened in fall 2011, will be listed on maps under the abbreviation LB. It was renamed in recognition of the mountain laurel as Connecticut’s state flower and to complement nearby Oak Hall, which opens this month with a name that comes from the state tree.

Oak Hall (OAK on new maps) includes classroom space and will also be the new home of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences departments of political science, linguistics, modern and classical languages, economics, and journalism. Those departments were previously scattered throughout Arjona and Monteith buildings.

Oak and Laurel halls were originally called the East and West Classroom Buildings respectively when their construction was under way. The western building was known throughout the past year by the generic and temporary “Classroom Building” moniker before Laurel Hall was adopted as its name over the summer.

In other name changes, the former CLAS Building is now known as the Philip E. Austin Building (AUST), honoring the former UConn president who led the University from October 1996 through September 2007.

Also, members of the University community entering the building previously known as the Center for Undergraduate Education, or CUE Building, will now find themselves instead at the John W. Rowe Center for Undergraduate Education (ROWE). Rowe served as chairman of UConn’s Board of Trustees from July 2003 through 2009.

UConn’s Board of Trustees adopted both changes in June. Board Chairman Lawrence McHugh described Austin and Rowe as “two of the most important figures in the long history of this University.”

In addition to Oak Hall, another new structure will open at the Storrs campus for the fall semester: the Carolyn Ladd Widmer Wing (WIDM) of Storrs Hall, home to the School of Nursing. The new wing includes nursing simulation training rooms, an auditorium, displays of the Josephine A. Dolan Collection of Nursing History, the new Eleanor Krohn Herrmann Reading Room, and other features.

A number of administrative offices also moved during the summer. These include the International Center and Immigration Services and the University of Connecticut American English Language Institute (UCAELI), now on the main level of McMahon Residence Hall; Dining Services, now located on the first floor of the Bishop Center; Career Services, which has new offices in the Student Union and the Wilbur Cross Building: the Center for Career Planning and Development in Wilbur Cross Room 201, and the Center for Internships and Employer Relations in Student Union Room 203; the Department of Residential Life, including Housing Services, which moved to Rome Hall Building D; Student Affairs Information Technology (SAIT), now in Putnam and Northwest halls; HuskyTech, now in the Gant Complex (Math Science Building), Room 037e; and Health Education, which has moved to Wilson Hall in South Campus.