Planning for growth–and how best to ensure adequate facilities, expanded campus services and pleasing public spaces–drew senior administrators together last weekend for a focused retreat.
"As we grow, we must be successful in accommodating our students, our faculty and our staff, and we have to ensure you have the tools you need," Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef told members of the Council of Deans and Vice Chancellors attending the retreat.
"We’re planning now for growth out to our ceiling size and it’s extremely important that we do this right."
Vice Chancellor for Resource Management and Planning John Meyer and several members of his staff and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies Patricia Turner briefed the council on actions taken to address current space needs. They also provoked discussion of such interim alternatives to address increased classroom demand–particularly for large lecture halls–as scheduling more classes outside of primetime and in nontraditional teaching space such as the Varsity Theatre or Freeborn Hall.
Various facility funding strategies were also broached, including the cultivation of increased public-private partnerships, an anticipated comprehensive campaign coinciding with the campus’s centennial celebration, and the use of campus discretionary dollars to speed up classroom projects that would otherwise remain in a long queue for state funding.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Carol Wall led discussion of actions needed to ensure the anticipated demand for student services and housing can be met, and Meyer similarly addressed faculty and staff housing needs, administrative space planning and enterprise projects.
A concluding presentation on "connecting the pieces–building places, not projects" was offered by Campus Planner Bob Segar, who provided insights into the "neighborhood" land-use concept and people-friendly approach guiding the campus’s physical planning.
"We’re extremely fortunate we have a number of very good people who are assisting us in planning wisely for our future," Vanderhoef said. "This will be an ongoing process and, I think, a very exciting one."
Growth planning deliberations will continue within the council, with periodic updates provided to the campus community.
Additionally, meetings of the Long-Range Development Plan Advisory Committee, composed of campus and community representatives and focusing on external considerations of the campus’s growth planning, are open to the public; the next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 29, from 4 to 6 p.m. in MU II of the Memorial Union.
"This will be a challenging time for our campus," said Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Robert Grey.
"Fortunately, we’ve planned ahead on the financial side. We have budgeted our campus’s discretionary funds to ensure that we’ll have the classrooms, laboratories and research facilities required for the campus to continue to prosper."