Controversy over McGee Pavilion construction

Construction projects in Binns-Merill and Harder halls began with controversy. Art and design students lost senior show spaces and Harder Hall staff lost the luxury of windows or, in some cases, their entire offices. Meanwhile the Alfred University community gained a large fence which bisects academic alley.

Approximately two and a half years from now, the outcome of this springtime construction project should be profitable for the colleges of engineering and art and design. Presently the entire university is trialing through the complications construction has caused.

As the fence around Harder Hall rose, student belief in university communication fell to silence. Students looked on as the large fence was erected around the construction site.

Students have been displaced by the construction projects. The Harder Hall courtyard, used for senior shows in the past and granted to one senior this year, has been destructed to disuse. Office windows were boarded over while dust seeped into the adjacent Holmes auditorium.

The question on most peoples’ minds is not why, but why now and why the silence.

“It has been my experience that administration, faculty and students are often not on the same page, especially with anything campus wide,” stated a senior art and design student. “I feel the different schools don't communicate well with each other and consequently students and faculty are blind-sided to upcoming obstacles.”

Forced to scramble out of the way of construction, Jodi Bailey, AU’s director of marketing, wrote an urgent email to tour guides explaining how best to forego the inaccessible section when giving tours on the university’s $8000 tour bike.

“We are at the mercy of the state university construction fund,” said Professor of Glass Science and Statutory Unit Head William LaCourse.

According to the website www.sucf.suny.edu, the State University Construction Fund (SUCF) is currently charged with 128 projects across the state of New York and is managing $1,743,000,000 worth of contracts. Of that sum the construction at Alfred University’s statutory colleges represents $15 million.

LaCourse was not made aware of the construction’s commencement until the week ground was broken. That said, LaCourse empathizes with the Harder Hall community and stated, “[this was] an over site in not getting word out.”

When asked about communication fractures between students, faculty and staff, Jamie Babcock, Director of the Statutory Physical Plant replied, “I have met with one student who was going to use the plaza for his show and we have successfully worked together to come up with an alternative space…As far as the students are concerned, I have very limited access to the students and rely on the faculty to communicate.”

“We are willing to work with any students that do not understand what is happening or need help with their shows,” he added.

Art and design senior Britny Lee has requested an open forum on the issue. The request has yet to be approved.