By wpengine September 30, 2003
Scheduled to open for the 2004 school year, the Robert A. and Jan M. Beck Center will be a 35,000 square foot addition to the east side of Statler Hall. The center, named for Robert Beck, former dean of the School of Hotel Administration, and his wife, Jan, is currently under construction and will include a three-story teaching facility to enhance classroom and computer laboratory education in the hotel school. The Beck Center is part of a $16.2 million expansion project to “help make the proper pedagogy feasible,” said Marge Ferguson, associate dean, business administration, School of Hotel Administration. After increasing the available slots in the school by an additional one hundred students in the 1990s, the need for more offices and interview rooms has grown. Compounding the need, the current building has some shortcomings. For example, Fergusen said, “the current case study rooms are long and rectangular, which make it hard to see the professor.” The new building will have two tiered case study rooms, one with distance learning capabilities. In addition, in the current computer lab setup, “there are not always enough computers for everyone to have one facing front, ” said Tess Staadecker ’07. These problems were addressed in the design of the new center. “We are completely redoing the computer facilities, first, by constructing a computer lab in the new building, then, in May 2004, the school is handing over the existing Binenkord Computer Center for remodeling.” said Project Superintendent Randy Heckman. “The Beck Center will feature a lobby atrium with a third floor balcony overlooking the entry courtyard to add to its aesthetic appeal,” Heckman said. On the first floor, it will have a lecture hall with an occupancy of 140 and a hospitality suite that will serve as “a large conference room with the flexibility of a reception area to welcome visitors,” according to Ferguson. The second floor will have classrooms, group study rooms and interview rooms. The third floor will have the new and improved case study rooms, in addition to more interview rooms and classrooms. It will be connected to the third floor of Statler Hall via a wheelchair-accessible ramp. Altogether, the Beck Center will add two group study rooms, two classrooms, eight interview rooms, two case study rooms and a lecture hall, in addition to an expanded computer center to the hotel school. The renovations also include the already refurbished Statler Auditorium, which took place from May 4 to Aug. 22, 2003, for an Aug. 23 deadline for Orientation. “They have done a very good job of meeting the needs of keeping it open,” Ferguson remarked. Keeping Statler Hall open with ongoing construction has been no easy task. “There were sparks flying in my Managerial Communication class,” Staadecker said. “Last year during the demolition, the faculty was very patient, but with dust flying and jackhammers drilling, it was, well, noisy,” Ferguson said. The construction has been inconvenient in terms of parking and traffic, as well. “We plan to work through the summer,” Heckman said of the summer of 2004, and it looks as though the project long underway will come to a close on time for the fall of 2004 deadline. Funding, which has come entirely through donations, is nearly complete, with $15 million raised and the other $1.2 million expected by December. Now, the construction is in the final stage of what has been a long process — interest in expansion was first expressed in 1995 and ground was broken in 2000. “I think everyone is excited just to see it finished,” said Rajesh Shah ’04. Archived article by Erica Fink
By wpengine September 30, 2003
Due to a lack of funding, the Tompkins County Public Library has not been open on Sundays since the beginning of this month. Additionally, the library has had to reduce its schedule by three hours a week since the beginning of 2003 due to a decline in county funding. Sunday “I think people are very disappointed that the library isn’t open on Sundays,” said Janet Steiner, director, Tompkins County Public Library. “There just isn’t enough [money] to stay open on Sundays; the cost to do that was $1500 for every Sunday.” However, there have not been adequate contributions to maintain these hours recently. Many patrons did express disappointment that the library will be closed on Sundays. “I think it’s too bad,” said Carol Ast, a library patron. “A lot of people only have weekends to go [to the library].” However, not all patrons feel that the changes will force them to overhaul their schedule to get into the library. “It won’t effect me personally,” said Peter Miller ’81, a library patron who visits the library on weekdays when he is downtown working. The library’s funding is primarily composed of money from the county, which accounts of 70 percent of the library’s budget. In spite of the large amount of funding from the county, however, for the library to remain open on Sundays it has to rely entirely on contributions from private donors. “The county has never funded Sunday hours; it doesn’t consider it a core operational service,” Steiner said. “We started opening on Sundays in September of 1997 due to generous contributions of individuals, businesses and state aid. We have sustained that through private money and state aid up through May of 2003.” Support According to Steiner, over the last year and a half, one individual supported all Sunday openings with two gifts of $25,000. Another major source of funding was state aid obtained by Marty Luster, former Assembly member. However, with Sunday hours costing $50,000 for each academic year, not enough money is currently available. “If someone would like to make a generous contribution, we would be very eager to accept it,” Steiner said. “It’s a great disappointment for us not to be open on Sundays and we hope this is a temporary situation.”Archived article by David Hillis