By Kassondra Granata
CCSU’s chief administrative officer Richard Bachoo updated the Student Government Association on the status of future campus construction projects Wednesday.
Bachoo focused mainly on the various new buildings that are being planned to be built on campus in the near future.
According to Bachoo, plans are in motion to begin constructing a new academic building this August between Marcus White and Barnard Hall.
The new academic building would be placed adjacent to Maria Sanford and located close to Welte Garage. The CCSU university facility website estimates the new 62,640 gross square foot academic building at $38 million.
Sen. Shelby Datillo asked Bachoo about classroom size problems that malign other older academic buildings on campus and whether or not the issue will be considered in the planning of the new building.
Bachoo said that there has already been discussion regarding classroom size and that they will not make the same mistakes as they did with the Willard and DiLoreto academic buildings.
“We deliberately picked classroom sizes that are large enough to try and not have this problem,” Bachoo said. “We will not make the same mistake pushing 25 students in a classroom that really seats 12.”
In order to facilitate the future construction projects, CCSU will be forced to take the Vance green temporarily offline and out of us in order have a location to store the retaining bases of the system, allowing workers to get the job done smoothly. Bachoo did indicate that no buildings will be shut down and any construction that might bother classes would take place at night.
CCSU is also aiming to have a new residence hall constructed alongside the student center parking garage that the CCSU website estimates as being an $82 million project. According to Bachoo the new residence hall will hold a capacity of 600 students.
“We have a goal to get that residence hall open by late 2013,” said Bachoo. “We’re pushing very hard to get it moving.”
Bachoo, who says that parking is currently not a problem for the university, said that the situation would need to be looked at after the construction of the new residence building.
Because some club sports teams use the field the new residence hall is planning to be built on, Sen. Erika Dawson-Head was concerned with whether or not those teams would be able to find space to practice on during and after construction.
“There are plenty of field space opportunities,” Bachoo said. “The soccer field will be fully open by next year for club practices.”
With the creation of a new residence hall, Bachoo acknowledged another plan in motion to create some other type of food service facility that would be constructed ‘up the hill’ closer to residents living in that area. This would also help accommodate the addition of 600 more students to the campus that the new residence hall will bring.
“We think that it’s important that, particularly for the students up the hill, for them to have some sort of facility so they don’t have to truck all the way down to Memorial to eat,” said Bachoo.
Bachoo said that this new construction project has been chosen over the option of putting millions more towards CCSU’s current dining facility in Memorial Hall.
The Elihu Burritt Library will also reopen in September with a brand new look, with each floor having been worked on, along with reconstruction to bathrooms and other building facilities.
“The library will go through many changes,” said Bachoo. “It will be brighter than it was before.”
Bachoo also noted the fact that now when students enter the library on the first floor, they’ll actually be in the library, facilitating access.
Campus security will also see an approval as an already-funded police station is close to beginning construction.
In February, the State Bond Commission approved funds of $5.2 million to go towards the construction of the new CCSU police department and public safety building to be located along Paul Manafort Drive. In the bond request made by CCSU, it’s stated that the project will be 12,500 square feet. The building will house the public safety administration, patrol operations, special services and support service divisions of the campus police.
In addition, Bachoo said that by next year, campus will move from having 300 security cameras to 500 cameras in order to increase campus safety.
“You’ll never know who’s looking at you,” Bachoo said.
