Construction on campus stirs up wide range of student opinions

By Haleema Mian in Front Page, News on Oct 22, 2012 9:10 / comments

As CU undergoes construction near the recreation center and other places on campus, some students are beginning to see its effects on their daily lives by finding limited access to and from class, and many are concerned with whether the funding for these projects is coming from their tuitions.

Along with the Rec Center, four other construction projects are currently underway: the campus Utility System, Kittredge Central Residence Hall, Kittredge West Residence Hall and the underpass on Broadway & Euclid. Out of these projects, the completion of the Campus Utility System will be the most time consuming and is expected to be completed by September of 2014.

Morgan McCadden, a 19-year-old sophomore political science major, said he is looking forward to the contribution the construction will be to the campus and the improvement of the school.

“I rode the bus once since I’ve been here and that kind of sucked,” McCadden said. “It really isn’t affecting me this year. I like the improvements. I think they’re great; they’re great for the school.”

Other students just see the construction as something that is restricting their ability to navigate around campus and are concerned with how they will be benefitted in the end.

Mara Demauro, a 21-year-old junior communication and elementary education major, sees the construction as a hassle because she doesn’t know what the end result will be.

“It just gets in the way, it’s just inconvenient for now,” Demauro said. “Definitely if I were more educated about it or had more details about it, I’d have a stronger opinion.”

Taylor Furey, a 19-year-old sophomore communication major, believes students should be more educated about what the campus is doing in terms of the construction and the university should provide a clearer image of their plans, including where the money for the construction is coming from.

“It’s just really inconvenient because it’s in the middle of the campus and it’s just really loud,” Furey said. “It just feels like a waste. We won’t be able to enjoy any of it. I’m more interested in construction and things like that if it’s going to effect tuition and how much I’m paying already to come here. I don’t need to be paying more than $50,000 a year to come here.”

According to CU Facilities Management, funding of the Rec Center is provided through the sale of bonds to be repaid through student fees collected over a period of 25 years. Other projects, such as the Campus Utility System, will be funded by a combination of cash reserves and long-term debt proceeds.

Jerome Seitz, a 19-year-old sophomore chemistry major, disregards the inconvenience of construction by focusing his anticipation on improvements being made to the Rec Center.

“I look forward to the new Rec Center, but it’s kind of a hassle, but we are going to have a nice Rec Center,” Seitz said. “People have obviously dealt with construction before us and we get the benefits of that.”

According to CU Facilities Management, the renovation and expansion of the Rec Center will be completed in the fall of 2013, and it will increase the size of the current facility by 30 percent

Although there is much excitement regarding the Rec Center, students are concerned with whether they will be able to see the results because of the length of construction. The fees for the Rec Center are currently $98 per student. Beginning in the fall of 2013, the fees for the new Rec Center will be between $121-125 per student and will not affect the students that won’t be able to use the new facilities.

John Gowen, a 27-year-old sophomore chemical engineering major, doesn’t see construction as a problem but feels that should be done in a timely way so that he receives some benefits of the construction.

“I haven’t really paid much thought to it,” Gowen said. “I mean I know they’re doing the Rec Center. So I think it’ll be cool when it’s done. I would say it kind of sucks now because I’m probably paying for it but not going to be able to enjoy it my time here. It’s college; they make you pay for everything. I’m not really that concerned about [costs]. It would be nice to know but it’s just not something I want to think about.”

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Haleema Mian at Haleema.mian@colorado.edu.