The latest meeting was held on 4th October following a Campus Master Plan Workshop which was held in the previous week.
The main focus of this workshop was to look at what UC needs to put in place to attract and retain students – where will the student focus be on the campus and where will the social spaces be located? As a group we were also told that the UC Council had approved the Phase 2 development of the Undercroft which will see the development of a food hall. Stage 3, if approved, will be the development of retail spaces. There was some discussion as to whether this development confirms that the Undercroft area will become the “heart of the campus”. A new cafe will be constructed in November, and the food hall should be ready for opening in Feb 2012.
Peter Molony (Recovery Manager) spoke briefly about the heart/hub concept :

• success will come from concentrating student activities there
• needs to be active 24 hours a day
• mix of retail, social space, student services, recreation, arts and entertainment
• need to better understand what will attract and retain students – what do they want to see in the hub?
• Not the place for the big student events? (Campus Master Plan principles)

In support of the hub concept Nello Angelleri, PVC International Student Services, described the investment that Central Washington University made in its student centre. CWU is a small town university and was struggling to compete with the university with attractive campuses in Seattle. CWU decided to invest in a student centre which had facilities for food, drink, recreation, movies, theatres, teaching spaces etc. The range of facilities, the location on campus and the building design were all done well and resulted in an increase in student numbers and a re-vitalised university. The overall result was good for the students, good for the staff and good for the community.
A photo gallery is here:

Issues concerning public transport e.g. the light rail network were also discussed.

Dave Lang (Estate and Assets)addressed the group and discussed the srtuctural assessment of buildings on campus, talking through the low, medium and high system for rating buildings. The James Hight has been assessed and has rated very well.

Jeff Feild (Registrar) discussed issues concerning insurance and the diffuculties encountered when negotiating the best outcome for the University. Understanding where to draw the line between spending too much on remediation and refurbishment and perhaps ending up with a building still not fit for purpose. It was noted that the new building code, introduced post earthquakes, has meant that upgrades to many of the UC buildings are required.

It is very hard to capture all the conversations, if anyone has specifc questions about this Reference Group that they would like to discuss with me, please contact me as I would be very happy to share any information that I have or to raise specific or general concerns on your behalf with this group.

Heather Jenks
Associate University Librarian.