The renovation of the Livingston Student Center has not been pushed back for budgeting reasons, said Associate Director of Student Services Elizabeth O'Connell-Ganges. Instead, it was students themselves who suggested the renovation should start in full force in the summer months rather than early 2008.
The student feedback came from various forums held earlier in the project planning stages.
If the renovations were to begin earlier, sections of the student center would be closed off during both semesters of 2008, and some would be left open - to begin the work this early was the original plan, she said.
"They were going to finish one portion and open another portion," O'Connell-Ganges said.
But if the reworking of the interior of the student center begins in the summer months instead of during the school year, parts of the student center will not be closed during the year, and students have full access to everything in the building.
Students opted for the latter.
O'Connell-Ganges said the feedback the administration received suggested students would rather knock the construction out all at once during the summer and get it done in the shorter period of time.
"By doing that they are ensuring a shorter period of closure," she said.
In terms of when the project is starting, the building schedule is the same as it always has been, she said. Utility work and other smaller projects are still beginning in the early months of 2008. The only bullet point on the schedule changing is when the work on the interior will begin - in the summer.
Although the students in the forums were partial to the summer construction date, the Livingston Campus Council had anticipated the date to be early 2008, President Nick Martucci said, because the council had made recommendations earlier to the administration to the opposite degree - they wanted the student center work to begin in the fall.
But Martucci said since construction is still starting in the fall, the council was under the impression nothing was really pushed back, only reworked, and the council supports the construction date.
"McCormick is firm in his commitment to Livingston," he said. "The entire project is solid, fixed. The funding is fixed."
Martucci said he attended meetings with administrators, architects and students last year to discuss and plan the design of the student center.
Jaqueline Whitfield, the External Vice President of the Livingston College Council, attended those meetings since they began last fall.
During the meetings, the group discussed the elements absolutely necessary for the student center renovation, and what should be changed, Whitfield said.
"The top three were meeting spaces, lounge spaces, and office space," she said. "Office spaces for all Livingston student organizations."
There are plans to build new office space on a second floor of the student center, as well as expanding the first floor, O' Connell-Ganges said.
The funding for the student center is a fixed budget however, so the renovation will begin with what is necessary, Martucci said. If any additional funding comes along, other not-so-necessary addends will be included, such as a proposed arch stretching from the student center to Tillet Hall.
Plans for the interior design of the student center, including the game room are not yet finalized, O'Connell-Ganges said.
The game room in the student center as of now features video games, video rentals, and pool. Whether the space will change to student organizational space is still under discussion.
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