Three years after a global economic crisis cut millions from the university endowment, the university board of trustees approved initial proposals for five campus projects last weekend.
These ventures include updates and entire replacements of athletic facilities, the dining hall, student residences, Roy O. West library and student services facilities in the Union Building.
"It was a bit stunning to have a board of trustees say, ‘Begin aggressively planning five major projects,' said President Brian Casey. "It's extremely unusual for an institution of this scale."
The request for architectural drawings and more concrete planning of the five projects was yet another development from the trustees' winter meeting in Naples, Fla., which finished on Sunday, Feb. 12.
Other approved measures included a tuition hike, endorsement of the School of Music and Dean Mark McCoy, as well as the potential expansion of Public Safety jurisdiction from university property to all of Putnam County.
According to Casey, it was the most important meeting of the trustees he had attended since his first year at DePauw.
Casey arrived in the fall of 2008, a time when he said the university was dealing with "chronic" financial difficulties.
Three years later and over 50 university administrators lighter, he says the university can now look to the future of DePauw's place among the "very upper ranks of liberal arts institutions."
At the meeting, the trustees approved all "soft" costs for the five projects, meaning that fees for architectural drawings and other preparatory expenses have already been covered.
The "hard" costs will come from individual donors, who will also drive the priority and size of the approved projects.
Dick Vance, associate vice president of facilities, said estimates for those improvements could range from as much as $5 to $20 million.
Typically, the university will not pursue a project until 75 percent of the funds are available and the other 25 percent has been committed.
The university has not met that criteria, but Casey doesn't think that will be a problem.
He said he is "very confident" the university will be able to secure funds for all five projects, adding that construction could begin as early as 2013.
"It's going to be a lot of work, but let's go for it," Casey said. "If you want to be really good, you have to invest in the place."
Meanwhile, the proposed new entrance for the university on Anderson Street will start undergoing "radical" transformation as early as this spring.
Vance said the project is complete from a design perspective and hopes it will go out for contractor bids on March 7.
If the university keeps to that timeline, Vance said Anderson Street renovations should be "substantially complete" by Oct. 1, 2012.
Regarding schedules for the five new projects, Vance said "significant progress" likely won't be made until the early part of the summer and plans for one or two of them should be complete by the end of the year.
DINING HALL
The new dining hall, which will replace the Hub, is the most developed of the projects thus far, Vance said.
According to Casey, the Hub currently feeds about 1,000 students but seats far less than that.
Vance said plans for the new dining hall mirror those concerns.
"It's a very tight site in terms of real estate that's available to us," he said. "Mostly we have to think about making the building appropriate in size."
According to Vance, university proposals for the eating-place also call for an "axial relationship with the Green Center for the Performing Arts and East College."
To accomplish that vista, new construction will likely extend to the west of the Union Building.
General manager of dining services Steve Santo, who works for the university's food provider Sodexo, said he has not been brought into the meetings on the new dining hall but expects to participate in the future.
STUDENT SERVICES CENTER
The university also plans to renovate preexisting space in the Union Building to create a center for various student services.
Ideally, Casey said he imagines the Office of Civic, Global and Professional Opportunities and other student advising staff will move into centrally located offices in space left vacant from the current dining hall and bookstore.
The university bookstore will eventually be moved to the former location of Fine Print bookstore on the square downtown.
"All those offices that serve students as they think about their lives … that all becomes one space in the middle of the campus," Casey said.
A headhunting firm is currently searching for a director of the proposed center, a position that Casey said other peer institutions "absolutely" do not have.
STUDENT RESIDENCES
Beyond centralized advising services, students can also expect the addition of new housing to replace university apartments and other converted houses.
"It (the plan) is to replace sub-standard housing or housing that is less than desirable that we're asking students to live in," Vance said.
According to Vance, the priority is to build more duplexes for senior housing between Indiana and Jackson streets, which will house as many as 50 students.
LIBRARY
The trustees also approved planning on a "general freshening up" of Roy O. West library, Casey said.
Relatively untouched since 1985, the library will potentially receive new lighting, flooring, ceilings and furniture.
"It's really going to be a modest program," Vance said. "Where we just spend appropriate dollars to upgrade the appearance of that facility."
Casey added that there would be a general opening-up of the first floor and a "more rational use" of support space in the level below.
ATHLETIC FACILITIES
Another decades-old building, the Lilly Center, is slated for renovations in conjunction with other athletic facilities changes.
"It's clear that we've outgrown the Lilly Center," said former athletic director Page Cotton. "It's something that will not only benefit athletics but just benefits the entire community."
Cotton, who came to DePauw over 40 years ago as a soccer coach, recently assumed his new role with the university in which he'll work with Casey to raise funds for athletic programs and facilities.
Both Cotton and Casey said the playing fields are overused and need to be renovated or otherwise reworked.
Cotton will be looking for donors to finance these and other projects, which he says are "very" important to the future successes of DePauw's athletic programs.
"We want to have one of the top athletic programs in the country," he said. "You got to have outstanding staff. You got to have outstanding facilities."
Cotton said the types of improvements being discussed attract high-level athletes and signal commitment toward establishing DePauw as a top-tier NCAA Div. III contender.
"Within the framework of an outstanding academic opportunity, it's a great fit with the way athletics are set up here — integrated into the academic mission of the institution," he said.
PULL-OUT QUOTATION
"We made a series of extremely challenging financial decisions that allowed us to survive this period," Casey said. "We are still living with what was essentially five quarters of the endowment down by a significant percentage. [But] we can now imagine getting out of that."