If you went to the “Campus Master Plan” meeting on Tuesday, January 23rd, you got to see a whole new version of what Muhlenberg could look like.
Regardless of if you were sitting at one of the overcrowded tables near the front, or sitting awkwardly in the back next to the president of our school (that was me), the changes proposed probably surprised you. If you did not get to go, do not worry. Much of what was discussed will not happen for a very long time, if at all. Let me recap some of the proposed changes:
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The Haas parking lot would be moved underground and an Alumni Plaza would be put in where the lot is now adding more green space to the campus.
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The Plant Ops building would become another student center.
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Seeger’s Union would gain a “career wing.”
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The theater department would gain a 1000 seat theater.
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Benfer would be demolished (cue the excited cheers).
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To the dismay of many, the Gabriel house would be demolished and a new interdisciplinary academic building would be created.
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The library would gain a collaborative space wing off B level.
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New upperclassman housing would be built with retail space inside.
Although these may seem like a crazy amount of changes, they are just some among the long list proposed at this meeting. Amazingly in all this change, the parking issue seems to have been largely neglected. Despite many changes that will be made to parking facilities, the actual amount of campus spaces are only expected to increase by a whopping 15 spots.
Of course, one of the first questions brought up was, “who exactly is paying for this? Will these changes increase tuition?” President Williams was quick to explain that these changes will not come out of tuition dollars, yet was equally quick to state that this does not mean tuition won’t go up, and almost guaranteed that it will.
President Williams expects these changes to come out of the endowment, alumni gifts, and parent gifts. Muhlenberg’s endowment stands at 323.6 million, much smaller than its competitors Lehigh University and Lafayette College, but slightly larger than Gettysburg College. Alumni and parent giving fluctuate from year to year, but some students remain skeptical that tuition will not be impacted by these proposed changes.
As many questions as the meeting answered, many more remain. For example, if we have all of this money available to make changes, why are we not putting any of that money towards supporting the minority students on our campus? For years, students of color have been asking for more funding for the multicultural center, more faculty and students of color, and better social justice programing.
Jewish students have begged the administration to pay to expand Allentown’s Eruv, a boundary that allows Orthodox Jews to do simple tasks on Shabbat. Only part of Muhlenberg’s campus is within Allentown’s Eruv boundaries, and this leaves students who live on the South/West part of campus at a loss.
Students with differing abilities have asked President Williams to make our campus more accessible and all of these requests have gone, for the most part, with little to no response.
Further concern has been raised over how this expansion will affect the greater Allentown community and its residents. Residents have already complained about noise pollution from campus housing and have protested expanding housing any further. One of the propositions discussed was the possibility of closing off a section of Chew Street in front of the CA during events and turning it into a walking space. Given that Chew Street is one of the main streets that surrounds our campus and, at certain points during the day, can be heavy with traffic, this would be less than friendly to our neighbors.
One thing is for sure. Our future is uncertain.
Sources:
http://endowments.com/muhlenberg-college/ https://www1.lehigh.edu/investment/ http://endowments.com/lafayette-college/ http://endowments.com/gettysburg-college/ http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/700456/jewish/What-is-an-E… http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-nws-allentown-muhlenberg-di…