SLIM wing will close for renovations in fall 2008

Kellen Jenkins / The Bulletin

The SLIM building will be closed for seven to eight months to undergo renovations.

The school of library and information management wing of the William Allen White library will close for repairs and updates in the fall of 2008. President Lane announced the plan in meetings on Wednesday and Thursday to several faculty members and heads of recognized student organizations.

According to Mark Runge, director of facilities, the bulk of the repairs will meet electrical and mechanical needs of the SLIM building as well as some elevator repair and duct work to the stacks in the William Allen White library. Runge stressed that the work will not be an inconvenience to most students.

“Most students won’t see an effect and won’t be inconvenienced,” Runge said. “90 percent of services of the library will still be available for students.”

The repairs are planned to be completed by the fall of 2009.

“It will mainly be a lot of behind-the-scenes work,” said Ray Hauke, vice president of administration and fiscal affairs. “We wanted it to be spread over two of the main semesters to have as little inconvenience as possible.”

Offices in the SLIM wing will be moved into office space in the actual library portion of the building while classrooms will be moved to a location that has yet to be determined. SLIM classes that meet in the fall of 2008 will be relocated in October just before work begins, as those classes meet only on weekends.

Duct work in the stacks is not expected to require closing that particular part of the library. According to Runge, if it becomes necessary to do more extensive work to the ducts, the materials on that side will be moved to the other side of the stacks and will not require a complete closing.

Many of the repairs include complete overhauls due to outdated systems. Parts for some of the systems are not produced anymore. In the past, ESU had to find salvaged parts to repair broken ones.

“We would call some of the companies who made these parts and they would either be closed or they didn’t even remember making that part,” Runge said.

Overhauls of the original 1951 electrical system are necessary as well as repairs to the heating and air conditioning units.

The SLIM area of the building is part of 1950’s construction, while the William Allen White library was primarily constructed in the 1970’s. Most of the SLIM wing has not seen repairs or updating beyond the replacement of a few broken parts.

Closing the entire wing for repairs, as opposed to doing each repair gradually without moving classes, is expected to have more benefits than drawbacks. Runge stated that the current plan saves the university money in the long run, even with the search for other classrooms for SLIM.

The plan will also save time, as repairs done to building without moving classes or administration would take up to 17 or 18 months to complete, as opposed to the planned seven to eight months.

The deferred maintenance package was allocated to ESU in the fall of 2007 by the state of Kansas. According to a report compiled by the Kansas Board of Regents, the repairs needed for the library are considered of a more vital importance due to the high number of students using the facilities.

The repairs are expected to cost around $2.1 million and are part of the $8 million allocated by the state. The university will use the funds over a five-year period to update and maintain university property, which has not received the amount of attention needed in the past due to lack of funding.

Other projects undertaken by the university to occur in the coming months include completion of a new roof for the HPER building, which is expected to be done in May or June of this year, and a geniculation of utility tunnels on campus. Roosevelt Hall’s HVAC unit will also receive attention but not until summer to avoid air conditioner shut-off during finals week.

Even with the process of shifting offices and closing off the wing, Runge remains confident that the overall experience will not be overwhelming. He said he had spoken to Joyce Davis, dean of the library, who is involved in the planning of the repairs to the SLIM building, and she said that the library is well equipped to deal with the change. Davis was unavailable for comment.

“I have confidence in the librarian’s abilities to adjust,” said Karen Smith, associate professor in social sciences. “I have faith that they can cope really well.”

Smith had an experience of her own with library construction when she attended the University of Massachusetts. The school’s library had to be closed due to an architectural hazard and students were not allowed to enter building. The librarians found a way to cope and retrieve books from the building; something Smith believes shows how many librarians, including those at Emporia State, are capable of finding a way to remain organized.

Overall the administration wants the repairs to cause as little inconvenience as possible.

“The library will do what it has to do provide consistent service to students,” said Michael Lane, university president. “We anticipate for the work to be done quickly and correctly.”