Starting the Monday after Commencement, Asbury Hall’s 86 day renovation will begin; however, the future placement of the Speaking and Listening Center (S Center) remains unknown.
Professor of English Gregory Schwipps and Associate Professor of Anthropology Angela Castaneda are the faculty shepherds for the project. Schwipps said after the renovation is completed, Asbury will have a new student lounge that will take the current location of the S Center.
The plans for Asbury’s renovation started in 2015 with an initial planning document. “This document has been the foundation and we’ve followed it pretty closely for the duration of this project,” Project Manager, Tony Robertson said.
Asbury has not been renovated since the 1990s and the 3-million-dollar renovation is meant to update the building. “The goal of the renovation is to keep the character of the building,” Schwipps said. “Asbury should look better and it should feel the same.”
Robertson said the first phase of renovations occurred last summer with a focus on the exterior of the building. “We repaired any masonry repairs, put a new roof on with new gutters and did some waterproofing,” Robertson said.
The second phase of renovations will focus on the interior of the building. The walls, ceilings, floors and other interior aspects of the building will be repaired to maintain the integrity of the building. “Asbury is a very popular building on campus,” Robertson said. “The faculty and staff wanted to retain the character of the building while updating it.”
The interior renovations have left the S Center without a permanent place on campus for the last two years. Professor of Communication and Theater and Director of the S and Writing Centers, Susan Wilson said the S Center was displaced after the elevator was added to Asbury last summer. “We don’t have a specific location right now, our original space was repurposed into an office and we didn’t get our current location until about four weeks into the fall term,” Wilson said.
The S Center is part of the Academic Resource Center (ARC). Students can go to the ARC to get specific help with their assignments in writing, quantitative and speaking. The displacement has affected more than where the S Center is located. The ARC tutors were also separated in the move. The ARC tutors enjoy working together despite being tutors for different centers. “They are like a family and if they aren’t on the same floors it hurts the cohesiveness of the ARC,” Wilson said.
Wilson hopes the new renovation will give the S Center a permanent location and has been working with facilities to have their needs met. Dean of Faculty Carrie Klaus said the S Center faculty have requested a space with proximity to the ARC, a 24 hour space they do not have to share and a space that has windows.
Plans for the project were unveiled on Tuesday in a meeting led by Robertson. A detailed timeline was released with specific dates on when Asbury will be cleaned out and interior construction will begin.
Classrooms will be moved starting May 22 and offices will be moved starting May 24. Wilson said faculty were notified they had to clean out their offices at the beginning of the fall semester. “We have to have everything packed up and they will move it into a storage unit for us,” Wilson said.
Robertson said that once work begins in Asbury a lot of people will be working all at once. Demolition will begin on May 26. The rebuilding process will not begin until the end of June when painting will begin. Construction crews will work on the functionality of the building during July with the addition of new ceilings and carpet. Furniture will move back into the building starting on Aug. 15 in time for when classes start on the Aug. 23.
Asbury’s renovation is a long awaited one, but Robertson said that “With improvement, there will be pain.”