Anticipation is in the air, as potential locations for the Central Classroom Facility have been chosen.
"We're making sure that the recommended placement of the new facilities takes into account the other facilities projects that will follow this plan," said Jim Carroll, capital project program architect.
Two of the options for the Central Classroom Facility are having one large facility, while the other three options split the Central Classroom Facility into more than one building.
The colleges that will be affected by the new construction are the colleges of science and mathematics, liberal arts, human sciences, agriculture and education.
"We've had overwhelming comments between students in SGA about keeping the Central Classroom Facility in one spot," said Richard Petty, SGA treasurer.
Petty also said the majority of students favor the Parker/Allison location.
"If you split the buildings, it takes away the concept of a central classroom facility," Petty said. "By building one central classroom facility, it would keep students from walking across campus to all their classes."
Collier Tynes, SGA chief of staff, also commented on the importance of keeping the students on campus when building the new facility.
"I know that we have made a really big push to keep students on campus because it helps improve graduation rates," Tynes said. "Having this facility near the Student Center will do that."
The other location under discussion for the single building concept is east of Tiger Concourse, where Dunstan Hall, the L-building and the engineering buildings are located.
The locations where the Central Classroom Facility is proposed to be split into more than one building are the Parker/Allison location and Tiger Concourse location, as well as in front of the library and by Tiger Concourse.
"Based upon where we decide to place the Central Classroom Facility, it's going to set off some dominos and force some other projects," Carroll said. "COSAM and the College of Liberal Arts are the two that we felt are the most affected by the locations we selected for the new central classroom facility."
Carroll stressed that Haley Center is not coming down any time soon.
"Once we have new buildings built and Haley is completely empty, we'd like to take it down, but until we build all these facilities we can't take Haley down," Carroll said.
Emmett Winn, chair of the central classroom committee and associate provost, stresses that space for students to get to class on time will not be an issue.
"The idea is not to build another Haley Center," Winn said.
All of the recommended sites will be reviewed, approved and selected by the Board of Trustees, Carroll said.
"We're not asking people to vote on the locations, because that won't necessarily be at our discretion to decide," Carroll said. "We're trying to gather the information by socializing and getting this information out there to bring back to the Executive Facilities Committee and, ultimately, to the president of the Board of Trustees."
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
