President Feridun Hamdullahpur announced a $10 million initiative that will focus on improving existing spaces on campus at a recent mini town hall meeting. This initiative is meant to compliment the already-existing construction projects throughout the UW campus, with many sites already undergoing renovations. </p>
The announcement was made Sept. 23 with the support of Sarah Hildebrandt, director of graduate academic services, Maya D’Alessio, president of the graduate student association, and Chris Lolas, president of Feds. As of writing, improvements can be seen throughout the arts quad buildings and the Science Teaching Complex.
“We’re starting to implement some of those changes now, but it’s an ongoing process. At the moment we don’t have an end date that we’ve set in stone,” said Nick Manning, director of media relations and issues management at UW.
Of the $10 million, $2.4 million will be used to improve the facilities at PAC. According to a tweet made by Stephane Hamade, Feds VP education, half the expense will be covered by students and half by the university, and included in the improvements will be new bleachers. With spaces like PAC, renovations are meant to expand upon the existing purposes of the complex. Student wellness and recreational needs are still a priority, but changes will expand the space so that there’s more room for exams and convocations as well.
Another $400,000 will be spent on improving interior public spaces around campus. To further broaden the scope of this project, UW will be including the former Blackberry buildings and East Campus Hall will also be addressed with future renovations.
During the question period, the panel was asked how they intend to address the growing shortage of parking spots available on campus due to construction.
“Its certainly true that with existing parking spaces being taken up by buildings, that takes some parking spots offline, but at the same time we did acquire as a part of the Blackberry building purchase a number of new parking spots. We expect that those at the very least will offset each other. With parking spaces that are at extreme ends of the campus, we’re looking at shuttle services,” said Lolas.
