The Rice Thresher

Location: http://the.ricethresher.org/news/2008/01/18/campus_construction_projects

January 18, 2008 > News > Campus projects near completion, future renovations planned

Campus projects near completion, future renovations planned

By Jocelyn Wright | Thresher Editorial Staff

As fences go up and come down across campus, a common question, is ‘What are they building now?’ A far less common question is, ‘How are they paying for it?’

Rice, which has historically amassed very little debt for any projects, is paying for two thirds of the new construction projects on campus by taking on debt. The other third of funding for the projects is coming from philanthropy.

McMurtry College and Duncan College, for instance, cost about $66 million each. Approximately $30 million of funding for each college was a gift. Vice President for Administration Kevin Kirby said the money from Housing and Dining charges of new students would cover the debt for the balance of the cost, but that he anticipated no significant increase in tuition or Housing and Dining fees as a result of construction.

Coming Soon

At the end of January, a short-term construction project on the grove in the South Colleges between Baker, Will Rice, and Hanszen will begin. Drainage issues in the grove will be fixed, new lighting will be installed along a path through the center of the grove, and trees and benches will be placed along the path. The landscaping project is expected to be completed in a couple months.

Student Housing

To accommodate the 30 percent increase in undergraduate students over seven years, new colleges are being built and others are receiving reneovations. Around the time McMurtry College and Duncan College are completed in summer 2009, construction is expected to begin on Lovett College, Baker College and Will Rice College. There are plans to build a new kitchen for Baker as well as demolish and replace one wing of Baker to add some extra beds. An additional common servery is planned for Will Rice and Lovett that will eventually also be used by Sid Richardson College. There are also plans to make improvements to Lovett and possibly increase the number of beds.

Although nothing is definite yet, Kirby said it is likely all Baker students will move to McMurtry or Duncan during the year their college is being renovated. Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman and Adviser to the Dean of Undergraduates Matt Taylor are discussing several plans for Baker for fall 2009 to spring 2010, including housing Baker students and part of McMurtry or Duncan’s new population simultaneously.

Kirby said the plans for renovations to the older colleges were motivated by the desire to close the quality gap between the colleges with facilities and accomodations. Rice is also concerned with the relative sizes of the colleges, Kirby said.

“We’re trying to get a little more equity in the size of colleges because it creates disparities when colleges are competing in Beer-Bike or Powderpuff,” Kirby said.

Currently, colleges range in size from 207 to 260 beds. Both Duncan and McMurtry will be able to accommodate nearly 100 more students. How to manage this extra space is a question Forman said he is still trying to answer.

“There’s no way to make the experience of a college that was built in 1912 identical to one built today,” Forman said. “Our goal is to try to make the experience equally rewarding. That’s why we’re having conversations and trying to get a sense of what the goals for campus size should be.”

Although he initially assumed that the percentage of students living on campus should be roughly the same across colleges, Forman said conversations with other students made him reconsider this. He is now trying to determine whether the size of the total population of the college is something Rice should keep equal.

“The question is to determine what are the factors to keep consistent and what are the factors that have less of an impact [on quality of life in the colleges],” Forman said.

For graduate students, new apartments are being built on Shakespeare Street to accommodate the expected swell in the graduate student population. The apartments, which will be completed in December 2008, will have 230 beds. In the short term, Kirby said the apartments will allow Rice to house 25 percent of its graduate student population, more than double the 12 percent it currently houses.

“[Housing] is particularly important for international students,” Kirby said. “One-third of the graduate students are international, and we want to control their experience so that it is safe, high-quality and affordable.”

As with the current graduate student apartments, Kirby said there would be shuttle buses to and from campus as well as a campus police presence. The apartments will open in January 2009.

Opening in 2008

Five other construction projects are scheduled to finish this year, starting with the Brochstein Pavilion in April. Kirby said students should anticipate a heavy dose of events scheduled in the pavilion immediately after its opening, from study breaks to concerts. In addition to the construction of the pavilion, the entire quad behind Fondren Library will be re-landscaped to include more trees and fountains. Although the pavilion will feature a coffee shop, Kirby said it is unlikely that it will be open for 24 hours due to lack of student demand. Additionally, there are plans to have coffee bars in the colleges that would open when Coffeehouse and other on-campus food options closed and would be operated by students. The servery in McMurtry and Duncan will have a space for a coffee bar operated by students, Kirby said. The power plant by Wiess College will be completed in July. The Rice Children’s Center — located on Chaucer Drive and housing 84 children — will open in August. A research center for undergraduates at the former stie of Hicks Kitchen will be finished by September. Autry Court, which, among other things, will feature a new scoreboard, will be done in October.

Opening in 2009

The Collaborative Research Center, a 480,000 square foot endeavor occupied by Rice and partners from the Texas Medical Center, will open in April 2009. A new recreation center across from the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School for Management and the Biology Labs — construction for which is scheduled to start in March — will finish in fall 2009. The recreation center will contain cardio and weight machines, squash courts, racquetball courts, a dance studio, a recreational pool and an olympic-sized competitive pool. In addition, the Health and Wellness Center will relocate its offices there.

Classrooms

As new students from Duncan and McMurtry move on campus, Kirby said the utilization of classrooms will have to be re-evaluated. Currently, Kirby said Rice over-utilizes its classrooms from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Ideally, Kirby said they would be at an 80 to 90 percent capacity to have room to relocate a class in case something happens, such as a projector or an air conditioner malfunctioning. Forman said Rice was looking at ways to improve the utilization of the classrooms we already have before adding additional classrooms.

“More classrooms means less space for other things,” Forman said. “We want to do this thoughtfully so that we have as many resources as possible to create other types of space.”

Kirby said that in addition to looking at policy changes, such as holding more 8 a.m. and afternoon classes, as well as having lunchtime classes, he is also looking at ways to add new classrooms.

Kirby said there will be six classrooms in the Collaborative Research center. He also said there were plans to build a new home for the social sciences and a new physics building, both of which might contain more classrooms.

End of article

Back to top