Campus student-ready — more than 100 construction projects completed
With nearly 20,000 students coming back to campus for classes Monday, Central Michigan University underwent months of renovations to make it hospitable for those coming to campus this fall.
More than 100 construction projects concluded in the weeks preceding the first day of class.
Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management, said the projects were mainly deferred maintenance. This includes roof replacements, sidewalk replacements, street paving and sewer repairs around campus.
This summer, 6,700 concrete blocks were added to Grawn Hall, 400 tons of recycled tire material called infill was added to the turf of Kelly-Shorts Stadium and 60,000 cubic feet of storage was added to Rose Pond to better utilize the pond's existing capacity.
These deferred maintenance jobs were completed over the course of the past four months, with some of the longer projects like the Biosciences Building and the creation of a 6,600-square-foot, two-story addition to the west side of Grawn Hall are scheduled to take longer. Phase one of Grawn Hall's makeover consisted of renovating the already existing 16,200-square-foot space, which concluded this summer.
In addition to readying the physical aspects of the academic buildings, custodial members of Facilities Management also are responsible for preparing Residential Halls for student use.
"Each summer (work) consists of some furniture replacements, repairs to rooms (and) touch up painting," said Kathleen Gardner, director of Residence Life. "Some summers include lobby remodels, carpet replacement and painting all common areas."
Floors five through eight of Cobb Hall were renovated along with the kitchen area of Northwest Apartment building three.
To make this work possible, Facilities Management relies on the work of 24 full time custodians, as well as an additional 90 temporary custodians. The cleaning of the halls began May 7 and concluded Aug. 24.
Alongside preparing the residence halls for student move in during August, custodial staff assisted in preparing the halls for nearly 50 summer conferences and camps. Lawrence said no issues arose during the cleaning of the residence halls, but that the task was still daunting for custodial staff nevertheless.
"Every summer cleaning the 22 residence halls is a major effort," he said. "This year was no exception."
Gardner referenced moving instructions that circulated through the residence halls when speaking of the standard of quality expected of living arrangements for students. Living units should be "clean and sanitary" and "absent of damages resulting from negligence, abuse or misuse,” she said.
