Renovations to cost $3-4 million

President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz announced plans to begin a $3-4 million renovation project at the conclusion of commencement — a move that will create 62 new beds for on-campus residential housing.

In a campus-wide e-mail sent to all faculty, staff and students on Monday, Liebowitz highlighted renovations that will convert office space in Meeker House, Munford House and the second floor of Voter Hall to upperclassmen housing. The office space will be replaced, among other locations, by this week’s purchase of Addison House and the conversion of the now residential Fletcher House.

Liebowitz and other officials have emphasized how the renovations follow the new financial model for the college outlined in February.

“Using existing space rather than adding new square footage is by far the most cost-effective way,” wrote Liebowitz. Liebowitz estimates the renovations will provide $2 million in revenue per year for the College, allowing the renovations to pay for themselves in less than two years.

“A small amount invested will pay us back much more in the years to come,” he added.

Dean of Students Gus Jordan explained that the decision to renovate Munford, Meeker and Voter was fairly recent, and did not become a topic of conversation among presidential staff, Facilities Services and the Space Committee until three or four weeks ago.

Although these renovations will mostly be reserved for super blocks, Jordan explained that the regular room draw process will also include “a couple” new houses located around the periphery of the campus.

Jordan anticipates these will be popular spaces that will be quickly grabbed by seniors. Specific information about these new houses was not available at press time.

Munford House, which now holds College Advancement staff, will be renovated to hold 32 beds. Residential Life has assigned the Comparative Music super block to Munford. Jordan explained that these spaces will be “mostly” singles.

Fletcher House, the space originally offered to the Comparative Music super block, will no longer be a residential space beginning fall 2010. Both Liebowitz and Jordan attributed this change to an effort to improve relations between the College and the surrounding residents.

Jordan highlighted the difficulty for students “who have a certain pattern to their lives to relate to what a neighborhood’s pattern might be.”

“Just standing outside talking in a normal voice, or having car doors slam at one or two in the morning, if you’re a neighbor… it wakes you up,” said Jordan.

Based on these tensions, the administration came to the decision that “it would be to everyone’s benefit if we could move a large house like that out of a neighborhood and back onto campus.”

The renovation of Meeker House, now home to Dean of the College staff and Student Financial Services, will provide 16 additional beds and will house the Potluck super block. Jordan hopes that an expanded kitchen area and the conversion of the conference room into a dining area will provide appropriate spaces for the group.

Although the second floor of Voter Hall now holds offices for Library and Information Services (LIS) staff, the building will be renovated to create 14 new beds and a location for two smaller super blocks.

Jordan emphasized that these renovations came as an effort to “increase the bed count in the most appropriate spaces but at a reasonable price,” and not as a need to find places to house super blocks.

However, the administration did face a challenge in providing housing for the amount of super block applicants that Residential Life saw this spring.

“We’ve tried to make sure that the addition of extra super blocks this year does not detract from the rooms the juniors and seniors traditionally expect to be available,” said Jordan.

The College will also acquire new property by purchasing Addison House. Liebowitz explained that in order to finance this purchase, the College has already sold two private houses located in town, and anticipates the sale of a third very shortly. Addison House will not be residential, but instead will provide office space for the Communications office staff.

Jordan explained that the “most of the renovation work will begin after commencement, and the buildings will be ready by the time students arrive in the fall.”

“The goal is to have everybody in place as much as possible by the start of the academic year,” said Jordan. Although Facilities will make this goal a priority for the buildings being converted to student housing, Jordan remains unsure as to whether all faculty will be located in their permanent offices by the start of the 2010-2011 academic year.

In the future, Jordan explained that the administration would like to re-evaluate the use of Munford and Meeker as residential space for super blocks or merely as rooms for regular draw. Jordan hopes to utilize student input via such bodies as the Student Government Association to determine the right number of super blocks for campus starting next fall.