Plans for campus raise concerns about sustainability, cultural houses

Jacob+Benjamin%2C+manager+of+the+campus+bike+center%2C+views+one+plan+proposed+for+the+campus+master+plan+at+a+forum+Wednesday+night+at+the+Illini+Union.+

Photo Courtesy of Angela LaVito

Jacob Benjamin, manager of the campus bike center, views one plan proposed for the campus master plan at a forum Wednesday night at the Illini Union.

By Megan Jones and Angelica LaVito, Staff Writers

University planners shared their vision for what the campus will look like over the next two to three decades at an open forum Wednesday night.

Lauren Williams, landscape architect and urban designer, and Andy Vazzano, strategic planner, presented three ideas to reshape the physical layout at the Campus Master Plan public forum. Both Williams and Vazzano are with SmithGroupJJR.

The plans are in the early stages, and Williams and Vazzano asked the audience to provide feedback by placing stickers on maps throughout the room to show their approval and disapproval of the options.

“What we’re really trying to do is take all these big ideas and mince them down into a single preliminary plan that we’ll continue to refine and really will become the master plan, the guiding plan as we move forward 10, 15, 20 years,” Williams said.

Ideas proposed included renovating various buildings, adding more interdisciplinary research labs and creating more pedestrian-friendly and open-space concepts, like the campus’s three quads.

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However, these plans come during budget uncertainty for the University due to a lack of state funding. The campus is short in its budget by $140 million.

Qu Kim, assistant director of construction capital programs for the University, said the budget has come up in conversations regarding plans. The core committee is trying to look ahead for the next two to three decades and create a “wishlist” of capital improvements.

“If you are planning things under current conditions right now, you can’t really advance and go forward,” he said. “The idea is that at some point there will be some budget resolution and we will have direction for the budget that can translate into our ability to implement the goals of the plan.”

The University needs 1.3 million additional assignable square feet to accommodate for a 1 percent increase in students each year over the next 10 years. However, the campus is already committed to a zero net growth policy in an effort to be sustainable through the Illinois Climate Action Plan, iCAP. All three options focused on not adding any square footage and instead replacing or consolidating current spaces.

The planners addressed this commitment, but failed to address any other sustainability concerns during their presentation. Members of Students for Environmental Concerns, SECS, in the audience were not pleased.

Joseph Edwards, president of SEC and senior in ACES and LAS, asked Williams and Vazzano how they have incorporated sustainability practices and carbon neutrality into their plans during the question portion of the presentation. Williams said the topics did not come up much in the presentation because the planners are still in the “big ideas stage,” but the team has analyzed energy usage and sustainability goals.

“Our idea is, as we move forward in the master plan, is next time to bring a series of recommendations that really drill down some specifics for sustainability,” Williams said. “We’re looking at increased use of geothermal, solar energy trying to get down to carbon neutrality energy usage with various buildings, especially labs that use a lot of energy.”

The response did not satisfy Edwards.

“I think they kind of include sustainability as a tangential factor in these plans, and I would prefer to see it as kind of the driving factor in all decision making processes from this University moving forward,” he said after the meeting.

During the discussion portion, concerns about the location of cultural houses and adding additional transgender housing wings to residence halls was brought up.

One of the proposed alternatives in the plan was to move the cultural houses to the west side of campus. One student said cultural houses should not be moved to a less accessible area of campus and is worried that if the houses are off the main campus, funding would be diverted to other sources.

The student also encouraged expanding all-gender housing, while keeping the options affordable. While new residence halls can add gender-housing, new halls tend to be pricier to live in.

Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Lowa Mwilambwe said new buildings do cost more and 1,300 beds on campus are in gender-neutral housing, along with adding gender-neutral bathrooms.

A parent of a student urged combining all cultural houses together and make them inter-connected in an effort to save money and resources instead of building different kitchens or resource rooms for each one of the buildings.

Zila Renfro, senior in Media and former Illini Media Company employee, spoke against this stating that while multicultural centers make sense financially, it brings a concern of autonomy and, when combined, she fears funding could dwindle for specific communities.

“We definitely need renovations because of the dilapidated state, but we do have kitchens already and want to make sure we keep autonomy of our specific groups,” she said. “While we do love multiculturalism, and cross-cultural events, keeping them separate is also important to us.”

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