With a unanimous vote Friday on its consent agenda, Ohio University's Board of Trustees approved three construction projects the university will begin this year and the renaming of several spaces within the university.
Construction
Officials will begin painting residence hall exteriors, restoring the patio connecting the Front Four residence halls and Nelson Dining Hall on South Green and repairing several catwalks on South Green after receiving the board's approval.
OU will spend $740,000 from Residential Housing's reserves to repair catwalks on South Green.
Trustee David Wolfort raised concerns at Thursday's Resources Committee meeting about the necessity of the catwalks and the expense of repairing them.
However, Harry Wyatt, associate vice president for Facilities, said only the most necessary repairs will be made and that other catwalks might be closed in the future rather than being repaired at an additional cost.
In addition, the catwalks being repaired serve a purpose right now that extends beyond a quick route between dorms or a buffer against potential flooding from the Hocking River — they support utilities infrastructures that service the dorms.
“I think the trustees, in their conversation yesterday, raised an excellent point that we should make sure we are only spending capital dollars on projects that will have a long life,” said Stephen Golding, vice president for Finance and Administration. “But there is the concern that the catwalks support necessary utilities infrastructures, and we have to maintain and protect those.”
The Front Four patio project — affecting Brown, Pickering, Crawford and MacKinnon halls and Nelson Dining Hall — will cost about $1.6 million and will be funded by Culinary Services and Residential Housing.
The final project, painting exterior areas at targeted residence halls on all three greens, will cost about $550,000 and will be paid for by Residential Housing.
Renaming
The consent agenda also addressed renaming the Technical Studies Building on OU's Chillicothe campus to the Technology and Business Development Center, a move that will reflect the branch campus's recent push to provide more extensive offerings to business students, said Martin Tuck, interim dean at OU-Chillicothe.
The campus has partnered with the Chillicothe Chamber of Commerce and Ohio State University's South Centers to provide increased business development opportunities to students. OU-Chillicothe also hopes to work with OU's Athens campus to offer a entrepreneurship certificate after the switch to semesters this fall.
The final consent agenda resolution approved the naming of Baker University Center's first-floor lounge as the Bobcat Student Lounge. The lounge, which is still awaiting final shipments of furniture, will offer a dance floor and stage as well as several flat-screen TVs. A survey was distributed to OU students last year inviting them to vote on the name.
“(The lounge) has lots of energy there,” Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi said. “We are going to have comedy nights and lots of fun stuff for students there. It is also used to reduce high-risk behavior to keep people on campus.”
—Pamela Engel contributed to this article
