Representatives of the various trades involved in the Memorial Union renovation project discuss their progress Monday morning in the Veterans Hall of Honor. The project should be finished in April. Chris Franklin/The Bulletin

After breaking ground in April 2010, the Memorial Union continues to be on track for a total makeover, which should be completed this coming April, according to Dave Hendricks, director of the Memorial Union.

“We’re over halfway (done), which is nice,” Hendricks said.

Hendricks said the project is moving along, but there is still much more that must be completed and some obstacles have come up.

Hendricks said that the current focus now is the third floor, which will house student publications and a senate chamber for the Associated Student Government. This work is scheduled to be completed sometime this semester.

“The areas that we’re working in right now are the most challenging for the contractor because they’re the oldest,” Hendricks said.

He said that much of the building dates back to 1925, which has added complications. There was a holdup with fire suppression systems and getting new plans approved and equipment installed.

The next area that is scheduled to go online is the west side of the lower level. This will include the entrance from the north side of the building, the Office of International Education and Career Services. Hendricks said that the nicest feature of this portion is the open stair tower. These stairs are concealed by glass so it will be possible to see up to the top from the lower level as well as down and outside.

“And then, unless something drastically happens, we’re on track to complete the main street area over the winter break,” Hendricks said.

The final portion of the renovations will include the Kanza, Flint Hills and Greek rooms which will go offline at the end of the semester.

“I’m excited to see how it turns out,” said Kaylynn Anderson, freshman secondary history education and Spanish major. “It’s kind of annoying right now because you have to walk around it and hear the noises.”

Originally, Hendricks said about $18 million was the estimated cost of “phase one” of the process. Since the first phase cost only $16 million, the union was able to initiate what Hendricks called “phase two” of the process, which included the third floor, everything west and north of the ballroom and some extra work on the lower level waterproofing.

“(It has) far, far, far exceeded any expectations that I had,” Hendricks said.

New features will include an updated main street, additions to the ballroom and a new “convenience” store, according to the ESU renovations website. Additional information and updates on the progress can be found at Emporia.edu/murenovation.

Brooke Schultz

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Moving the food service from the Lakeview Cafeteria to the second floor has been the biggest challenge of the renovation in the Memorial Union up to now.

Moving the food service from the Lakeview Cafeteria to the second floor has been the biggest challenge of the renovation in the Memorial Union up to now.

“We spent last month creating a new dining hall on the second floor,” said David Hendricks, Director of the Memorial Union. “The biggest challenge… has been creating a temporary dining room. For me or for the union, I think that would be the toughest.”

During the winter break, the food service in Lakeview Cafeteria was moved to the temporary dining hall on the second floor using the connected Kanza, Flint Hills and Greek Rooms. As of Jan. 10, the food service will be provided in the new dining area.

According to Hendricks, the space of the temporary kitchen is one-fourth of the one in Lakeview Cafeteria. However, the temporary dining area has the same number of seats as the old one, even though it is smaller. All food service will use disposable service.

Junior History Major Brenton Williams said that temporary dining area is a lot smaller, but that “it works.”

The west side entrance near the Lakeview Cafeteria has been closed due to the renovation, so students have to use other entrances to find the new dining area.

“It’s caused some access confusion,” said Roger Heineken, an Administrative Officer for the Memorial Union. “But everyone is eager to see the finished product. They are tolerant of that, and I think the students are particularly.”

Because of the limitation of space in the temporary dining area, only seven of 10 meal options will be served. The options were chosen by all the resident students in last December through a survey.

“In March, students will have more options because the new Hornet Express will open,” Heineken said. “So, people can choose to eat in the Hornet Express or upstairs after Spring Break.”

The renovation in the dining hall is scheduled to be completed by Aug. 1, when the new freshmen come to campus. The entire renovation project is to be finished by May 2012.

“I think everything is going really well,” Hendricks said. “Every Tuesday we have a progress meeting with the architect, the contractors. We all get together in the room (and) just talk through what project we are working on.”

According to Hendricks, currently some offices were moving back to their permanent locations which have already been demolished.

“For example, (last Friday) we moved the mail room back to its permanent location. In two weeks, we plan to move Kansas Talking Books into their permanent place,” Hendricks said.

All the new Ambassadors have already been trained to talk to the perspective students about this renovation in MU, according to Heineken.

“There’s a lot of eagerness and anticipation,” Heineken said. “All the students are forgetting about the inconveniences, because they know what the end product is going to be.”

Han Yan

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By Ellen Weiss

As the new school year stretches its fledgling wings, it is obvious that the overall appearance of campus is somewhat different than it was last year.

As soon as the spring semester ended, construction crews moved into the Memorial Union to begin the process of renovation after nearly one and a half years of anticipation.

The most obvious change in the physical outline of the union is the relocation of the student bookstore, formally located on the first floor of the union in plain view for anyone seeking to find textbooks, school supplies or ESU apparel. Now, however, the bookstore has been moved into the basement of the union, in the space formally occupied by the Office of International Education which moved into a space in Morse Hall that, in the past, was used as part of the student dormitories.

Phew!

As you can clearly see and have most likely experienced firsthand, this whole relocation process has made things a bit convoluted and at times downright confusing. The widespread relocations on campus have made it a more difficult for the average student to navigate his or her way around campus without taking a detour or even backtracking to find the location they are looking for.

Students and faculty are not the only ones directly affected by the construction process. When visitors come to ESU they will have one of two thoughts about the renovations happening on campus. They will be impressed that ESU is taking the initiative to improve the campus, or they will be annoyed by the difficulties associated with getting around a campus under construction.

Either way, a significant impression will be made on visitors to our campus. An impression they will take away from ESU and relay to others.

Returning students are bound to notice differences throughout the campus. The library is different; the union is under construction; some of the dormitories have received a facelift. These are all good things in the long run, however, at the current moment in time they seem more as inconveniences than anything else.

The main way to solve the issues students and staff are facing with the renovations is communication. The renovation should be documented better on its website, www.emporia.edu/murenovation.

Maps should be made available on this website and placed at strategic locations throughout the campus. These small changes would be infinitely better than the current situation, wherein it seems that students are left to figure out the changes on campus for themselves.

If the administration does a better job of communicating what areas of the university are being affected by this process and when, then the problems that we are currently facing could be lessened or, ideally, solved altogether.

In two years, these inconveniences will be a thing of the past. But for now, it is an annoying fact of life here at ESU. The easier it is for students here on campus, the better experience it will be for everyone. It starts with the little things.

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With the Memorial Union renovation groundbreaking having just occurred, and renovations currently underway, students will have a few different looking parts to their Union when they return in the fall.

“We’re about a month behind schedule,” said Dave Hendricks, director of the Memorial Union. “Ferrell Construction is responsible for bidding out the project, and we’ll find out who is doing the work on May 20. They’ll also supervise construction.”

The first phase of construction will be closing down the east and north entrances to do work on the northeast section of the building that holds the Information Center, the Memorial Union Bookstore and the old Hornet Express. This will mean moving the Memorial Union Bookstore to a temporary location in what is now the Heritage room downstairs in the union.

“The work on that part will last for the entire fall semester, and most likely into part of the spring semester,” Hendricks said. “The original timeline had it set to be done by Christmas.”

Following that phase, the renovation will concentrate on the dining hall and west lobby, Hendricks said.

“The cafeteria closes before winter break, so we’re planning on starting renovating that part of the building during next winter break,” Hendricks said. “The dining will be moved temporarily to what is now the Flint Hills, Kanza and Greek Rooms in the upstairs of the Union. August 2011 will hopefully start with the remodeled cafeteria.”

Some students expressed concern about the timeline and cost of the renovation project.

“To be honest it’s a waste of money,” said Susie Cruz, junior elementary education major. “I don’t think it’ll attract more students to the Union like they think it will. I also think they should’ve waited for the summer to start closing stuff down.”

Raymond Jackson, junior English major concurred with Cruz’s analysis of closing down portions of the Union.

“It would have been more prudent to shut it down during the summer,” Jackson said. “I would have liked it if they had started it faster, since I’d rather see them in here now than having it spread out over a long time.”

Alumnus Roger Heineken, information center manager, believes that the Union renovations will affect students positively even if there are some temporary inconveniences.

“I think the plan is very well thought out,” Heineken said. “I suspect it will transform student social life in a positive way. Right now there is not ample social space for events.”

Hendricks encourages students to check out the renovations webpage that is linked to the Memorial Union portion of the Emporia University Web site.

“There is a timeline and concept photos on there that students should look at,” Hendricks said. “Students should check it out over the summer, since their will be pictures of the progress we make during the summer months and what they have to expect when they come back.”

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