Funding stalls construction of center’s fourth floor
As development on the Ronald Tutor Campus Center nears its August 2010 deadline, one floor of the building still lacks the $4 million needed for its construction.
Project coordinators said they didn’t have the money to build the area when they first added the 11,000-sq. ft. space to campus center plans almost 10 years ago.
Stalled · Although the university paid for the walls and roof of the fourth floor of the campus center, the interior of the floor will not be completed until more money is raised. - Geo Tu | Daily Trojan
Since then, they have hoped for a generous donation to complete Wing B’s fourth floor, which they hope will one day house student groups such as the Undergraduate Student Government and Program Board in a new Student Leadership Development Center.
“There has always been this desire to pull all the student involvement aspects together,” said Patrick Bailey, assistant dean and director of Student Life and Involvement. “Not only could resources be shared, but everyone could actually collaborate together. In the years of programming, that was always an element.”
But right now, the Student Leadership Development Center is only an idea. The center will remain an empty shell without walls, doors, ceilings or utilities, for however long it takes to raise the needed construction and furnishing costs. From the outside, however, it will look as polished and complete as the rest of the building.
“We always knew from day one we were never going to be able to finish this [in time],” Bailey said. Originally, the university’s budget for the L-shaped campus center covered up to three stories on one wing and four stories on the other, Bailey said.
University regulations prevented the building from being taller than four stories. The regulations allowed one additional floor that could still be built on the second wing of the building without surpassing university height guidelines.
Student Affairs officials, who had hoped to put a new student leadership center into the building, said they saw an opportunity in the potential fourth floor of the second wing. The problem was, the university had no money for the floor, Bailey said.
“The university agreed to build the fourth floor as a shell space,” Bailey said. “It wasn’t going to cost any more money because they weren’t going to finish it.”
The university paid for the walls and roof of the fourth-floor area, but the $4-million cost for the rest of the floor now falls to Student Affairs.
Bailey said finishing the fourth floor is probably not a financial possibility before the center’s August 2010 opening. The floor’s completion, which has no timeline, depends on fundraising and donations.
Jason Cruz, project coordinator for Student Life and Involvement, said they hoped it would be ready to open at the same time as the rest of the building.
“But that probably won’t happen,” Cruz said. “For us, it is just the sooner, the better.”
Once completed, the fourth floor of Wing B will house the new Student Leadership Development Center, which is designed to bring leadership organizations and student groups together.
The floor will consist of offices for the Graduate and Professional Students Senate, the Panhellenic Council and other leadership organizations, and will also host special lectures, workshops and events to help students hone on their leadership skills, Bailey said.
“Right now we are focusing on development efforts,” Bailey said. “The funding is what will start the process, and then we would go into the programming and design phase.”
Bailey said nothing is finalized yet and many things about the center are still subject to change.
Other complications include rearranging office space in the Ronald Tutor Campus Center once the fourth floor opens. If the money is raised, then USG, for example, will move from its second-floor office — where it will move in the fall — to the fourth floor, Bailey said.
“It’s an annoyance to move,” said USG President Holden Slusher. “It doesn’t make sense from my perspective for us to move into the office and get settled and then move again … but I think the center will be worth the move just because we will be so intertwined with other leaders.”
Student Affairs has already started promoting the leadership center with fliers and webpages, some of which mention ways to support the leadership center’s construction.
Panhellenic, for example, was the first student organization to aid the fundraising efforts in supporting and promoting the leadership center with its Greek Gala event in April 2009, which raised $20,000.
“It is crucial we have funding for this,” Panhellenic President Blessing Waung said. “It would foster a whole other bubble of student activities; all these creative undergraduates together in one place would be incredible.”
Panhellenic, currently housed in the Student Union, will move to the campus center once the Leadership Center is complete.
“Even after I graduate I am committed to helping finish this project,” Waung said. “I just want to see it happen for all the future students. I really think it is something that will change our entire campus.”
Yet as long as the center lacks funding, the space will remain empty and the student leadership groups will remain scattered across campus.
“We are always looking for funding,” Bailey said. “We are hopeful that when we get the money we will finish this as a student leadership space.”