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FSEC's thoughts turn to construction
By MARY COCHRANE
Contributing Editor
Ah, spring. The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming and the thoughts of UB administrators once again turn to renovating, expanding and constructing new facilities.
That's what the Faculty Senate Executive Committee heard at its final meeting of the semester yesterday from Sean P. Sullivan, associate vice president for academic planning and budget; James A. Willis, interim executive vice president for finance and operations; and Joseph J. Zambon, professor of periodontics and endodontics in the School of Dental Medicine.
Sullivan outlined the list of current capital projects at UB—all of which are in at least the planning phase—including:
A new $77 million, 130,000-square-foot engineering building, to be completed by May 2011, which is expected to be paid for through state funding ($50 million) and private philanthropy ($27 million).
The renovation of Acheson Hall on the South Campus, which will be the new home of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The renovation, which now is in the final design stage, is expected to cost $65 million and to be completed by August 2011. However, workers have recently discovered "environmental challenges" on site, Sullivan said, but added that these will be dealt with as the project moves forward.
A four-phased student housing program, the first phase of which will provide 600 beds for incoming UB students and which will include both the North and South campuses. However, the earliest completion date is estimated to be Fall 2009.
Expansion and renovation of campus child care facilities, which may require temporarily vacating the South Campus site in order to renovate it. Children from South Campus would be cared for on the North Campus in a temporary space that would be retained and converted to expand the current North Campus facility.
Reuse of 60,000-80,000 square feet of recently vacated library storage space, opened up when books and periodicals were transferred to UB's new storage facility on Sweet Home Road. A committee is looking into possible ways to improve these "living and learning spaces on both campuses," Sullivan said.
New uses also are being studied for the Cooke/Hochstetter complex on the North Campus once it is vacated by the School of Pharmacy when it moves to Acheson Hall.
Renovation of the Cary-Farber-Sherman complex on the South Campus, a project for which UB has requested $70 million in funding from the state Legislature. The School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has a committee looking into a concept for the long-term uses of these buildings.
The inclusion in Allen Hall on the South Campus as a center for community partnerships to forward UB's commitment to engagement with its surrounding communities. A committee is studying this proposal, which would be financed by private donations.
New construction will begin next month on the Founders Plaza walkway, "the main street of the North Campus," which extends from Capen to Clemens Hall. The project is expected to cost $3 million and to be completed by September 2008.
A "complete facelift" of Kimball Hall on the South Campus, a project that most likely will require the building to be vacated during its completion.
Upgrading classroom spaces on the North and South campuses in order to update them "technologically and aesthetically" at a cost of $2 million. This is the third consecutive year UB has "made an investment of this magnitude" to improve classrooms, according to Willis.
Faculty senators had several questions about the projects on the list, with the plans to build new student housing drawing the most questions.
H. William Coles III, assistant vice provost for the Educational Opportunity Program, expressed concern about the shortage of student housing, saying that in the recent past, students who have been told "there's no room at the inn" have left UB and gone to other colleges.
Willis said that this fall, UB again will turn to renting hotel rooms for students and other options, but added that all students will have a spot by the beginning of spring semester 2008.
Gayle A. Brazeau, associate dean for academic affairs for the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, noted that the Jewish Community Center's plan to phase out one of its buildings on North Forest Road in Getzville could present an opportunity for UB to acquire the space for use as a recreational facility or a health facility.
Merrill T. Dayton, professor and chair of the Department of Surgery, asked whether the research facilities in the Cary-Farber-Sherman complex are at capacity. Sullivan said they are, and that research space is "a major aspect" of the planning for the buildings' renovation.
Of course, there also were the inevitable questions regarding parking and classroom shortages, especially in the midst of construction and renovation. Willis said that both are ongoing issues that are included in UB's master planning process, and that in the case of parking, the university has begun a dialogue with the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority in order to best address that problem.
Coles also asked how UB plans to fund all these projects, and Satish K. Tripathi, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs who also attended the meeting, assured the FSEC that UB has received positive feedback from SUNY administration, as well as from the Legislature, regarding these proposals.
"We don't really want to take that road to grow unless we have the resources to grow," Tripathi said.
Later in the meeting, senators discussed how to identify troubled students on campus and the issue of emergency response in the wake of the tragic shootings earlier this month at Virginia Tech.
Willis said that like many other schools, UB is holding meetings to review its response plans to various emergencies.
He added that in addition to training for staff and students, the issue of widespread communication in such emergencies tops the list of issues being discussed.
He said that implementing the voice-over IP system at UB "gives us a vehicle to essentially ring every phone on campus instantaneously," a valuable tool especially in these times when "we estimate between 90 and 95 percent of our students show up to campus with cell phones."