Campus master plan outlined at A-Senate, survey regarding improvements to be distributed in January

Educational Leadership Professor David Whale claps along with other senators as professor Jim McDonald is announced as Teacher of the Year during the Academic Senate meeting Tuesday afternoon in Pearce Hall. (Zack Wittman/Staff Photographer)

Details about the 2013 campus master plan were presented to Academic Senate at Tuesday’s meeting.

Linda Slater, the director of plant engineering and planning at Central Michigan University and project manager for the task, laid out the schedule and outline of the plan.

The master plan will assess various aspects of the campus, including space utilization, facilities conditions, infrastructure conditions and land use. It will assess the capital needs of the university over the next 10 years.

“The plan will get down to how effective scheduling of classes is, how effective campus restaurants are and how effective major building systems are. It is not going to be, ‘that door has a dent in it,’ or, ‘office 141 is cold.’ It is working at a pretty high level,” Slater said.

The lead master planners of the project, SHW Group, an architectural and planning firm that has done previous work for CMU, will complete a review of facilities and buildings on campus and make recommendations for improvements on things from electrical systems in buildings on campus to traffic flow and pedestrian accessibility of roads.

A survey is projected to be issued just after the first of the year that will seek to gain input from people on campus.

“We want to engage the entire campus community in talking about master planning,” Slater said. “We do want your input on what you love about campus. We would appreciate your responding to it.”

University President George Ross said the survey is an important component to the improvement process.

“It really is important that we hear from you,” he said.

Slater said a website will also be set up to keep the campus updated about the plan, as well as give people on campus the opportunity to voice reactions and opinions of progress made.

Once the planners of the project issue their assessment, the steering team will review the assessment and recommend priorities, and the executive team will approve the plan and pass it on to the Board of Trustees.

“We have to be innovative and think how to cost-effectively improve our campus,” Slater said.