Issue date: 10/20/09 Section: News

A construction area sign is featured on the back of a stop sign across from Buzzard Hall. (Sam Sottosanto/The Daily Eastern News)

The Campus Master Plan will be getting its first update in seven years and its first major overhaul in 10 years.

"The current plan was originally approved in 1999 by the board," said Gary Reed, director of Facilities Planning and Management. "There was a minor revision in 2002, which addressed the new location of the proposed Renewable Energy Center on the southeast corner of campus, which was a major change at that point, but since that time we have not updated the Master Plan and it's due to be refreshed."

The Master Plan lays out the structural aspects of the university, from parking lots to lecture halls.

"Our Campus Master Plan defines in architectural, physical terms what the campus vision is, the direction going forward the administration wants to take the university institution," Reed said.

William Weber, vice president for business affairs, will talk about the plan at today's Faculty Senate meeting. The meeting is at 2 p.m. in Room 4440 of Booth Library.

Changes, updates and new projects in the plan have not been decided. The process will begin when President Bill Perry appoints a steering committee.

"We don't know yet (what changes will be made)," Reed said. "The process begins when we sit down with the steering committee and understand the inputs from the campus constituencies."

The update is the first since Perry's appointment as university president. The changes will reflect his administration's vision for the university.

"The administration and the board first agree on an academic direction. Then we have to provide facilities going forward to be ready for that academic plan to take shape," Reed said. "It's really the physical supports; that's its definition."

Interviews with community members, faculty and other stakeholders will help shape the direction of the plan.

"We'll hire an architect to facilitate those interviews and bring that together as part of our Master Plan," Reed said. "We have to execute a contract agreement with the architect. We have a contract in play right now, and the administration is almost ready to approve getting started. We're not quite there yet."

The current plan will shape the basic outline of the new Master Plan.

"We're not going to start with a clean piece of paper by any means," Reed said. "We have a good, basic Master Plan to begin with. Basically, the architect will look through all those pieces of information and bring it together and look at where the board and administration wants to take it."

Once the project actually begins, it will be a major undertaking for those directly involved to insure the new plan reflects the campus' needs and wants.

"There's a lot of collaboration and representation from the stakeholders into the plan because it's a reflection of many years going forward with where we're going to take the university," Reed said. "It's a very significant effort on many people's part."

Sarah Ruholl can be reached at 581-7942 or seruholl2@eiu.edu.

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