Name decided for new media building 

The VUC Board has decided that the name of the new media building on campus will be “the Sivert Aarflot-building”.

The Sivert Aarflot-building follows a long-standing tradition to name buildings after local pioneers of the enlightenment. The other buildings on campus are named the Berte Kanutte-building, the Hans Strøm-building, the Henrik Kaarstad-building, the Synnøve Riste-building and the Ivar Aasen-building.

A naming contest this summer resulted in 27 suggestions which were reviewed by staff at the Faculty of Media and Journalism and representatives of the VUC management. The final round of discussions involved the suggestions Olga Meyer-building, the Mirror, the Vinje-building, Ivar Aasen-building and Sivert Aarflot-building. Both the juries decided on the Sivert Aarflot-building. Therefore, this was the suggested name which Thursday was officially decided by the VUC Board.

Sivert Aarflot

Sivert Aarflot (1759-1817) was a pioneer of the enlightenment through his publishing. He was a farmer from Ørsta who became a teacher and thereafter a local official in Volda. Aarflot established the first printing press and the first newspaper in rural Norway. His work laid the grounds for the establishment of Volda as a school town.

The printing house he established in 1809 issued the first rural newspaper in Norway, Norsk Landboeblad. This is the predecessor for today’s newspaper in Volda, Møre.

Media building to be handed over in June

The construction of the new VUC Media building is as of today 12 days delayed – the same status as reported earlier in the spring of 2020. It is not realistic to catch up with the initial timeline, thus the plan is for the Sivert Aarflot-building to be handed over to VUC on June 9th, 2021. This will mark the start of the moving process, where furniture, inventory and equipment will be moved in and this means that the building will be in full use at the start of the autumn term 2021.