The continuing construction on campus that has affected students, faculty and staff is inconvenient, but the head of Point Park’s Physical Plant asked students to provide suggestions and feedback concerning the ongoing improvements.
“I think construction is a major issue on campus. It’s something that’s always prevalent,” USG President Julian Singleton said in an interview after the meeting. “With our downtown, urban campus, we’re always trying to renovate. We’re trying to update the campus – the look, how everything works – and it directly affects students whenever there’s construction.”
Chris Hill, Vice President of Operations at the Physical Plant, spoke at the United Student Government (USG) meeting Monday in the Student Center. He discussed the ongoing projects in Thayer Hall and Lawrence Hall, along with plans for the West Penn Building.
“I want you guys to come to us,” Hill said. “You are the people who live here. We’ll do everything we can to try to help you out.”
The construction in Thayer Hall is related to the recently renovated third and fourth floors. With the renovations, the city required a life safety upgrade.
The fire alarms, sprinklers and evacuation stairwells all had to be upgraded. Hill noted that the renovations to the third and fourth floors will be standard, meaning that all of Thayer Hall will eventually be renovated.
The University is still waiting for furniture to complete the new multipurpose rooms on the second floor of Lawrence Hall. The furniture in the current lounge area was moved from the commuter lounge, which now has chaise lounge chairs that were given to the University free of charge. The new furniture is expected to be delivered by mid-October, Hill said.
Aside from the completion of the multipurpose rooms, Hill stated that there are plans to put a window into the WPPJ studio so students in the new lounge can see students on-air, which should be completed this week.
Hill also noted ongoing upgrades to the stairwells in Lawrence Hall and the West Penn Building, hoping to make students feel safer in the stairwells and encourage students to take the stairs if they are only going up or down a couple floors, so as to alleviate some elevator traffic.
The Physical Plant staff uses a program called Lift-Net in all University elevators, which allows the staff to see when peak elevator times are, along with notifications as to when doors open and close and a recording of any faults in elevator operation.
As for the West Penn Building, Hill mentioned plans to move classrooms from the highest levels of the heavily trafficked classroom meeting place to the second tower, which was formerly occupied by Kaplan Career Institute and therefore not used by Point Park.
“We’re trying to get you guys in these stairwells,” Hill said at the USG meeting Monday after mentioning plans to renovate the stairwells in the West Penn Building.
The Physical Plant staff is also in charge of University shuttles and transportation, which is another area of upgrading for the University.
“We just put two new cameras in [each shuttle] to record what the vans are doing not only outside, but inside, to improve safety,” Hill said.
The University recently got approval to install new 108-inch digital displays in some buildings on campus, including Academic Hall, the Student Center, and the West Penn Building. Hill hopes to have a way for students to keep track of the shuttles on the new displays
Hill also mentioned the project to move the Pittsburgh Playhouse Downtown, which was just granted $5 million from Gov. Tom Corbett. The University aims to complete the project by 2017, although funding is incomplete.
Many students are concerned there will no longer be a shuttle to Oakland once the Playhouse moves Downtown, which Hill said is “to be determined.”
Also at the USG meeting, the legislative body denied the allocation of $3,850 to the All Things Horror club to bring in a haunted house for its Halloween Event this year. The club originally requested funding to bring in a corn maze, but altered its proposal after learning of other fees.
The company All Things Horror went through for the haunted house promised assembly, as well as the props and costumes necessary to bring an authentic haunted house to campus. However, due to the strict time constraint and the lack of a representative from All Things Horror present at the recent USG meetings to answer questions, the proposal was voted down.
“This probably is very worth it,” Keith Paylo, Dean of Students and Vice President of Student Affairs said during the discussion. “It just wasn’t presented correctly.”
All Things Horror will not be able to hold their Halloween event as it was proposed.
“We’ve denied a lot of clubs that amount of money for things that could have been used more than once,” Singleton said. “I would have attended the event myself if it eventually would’ve gone through…[but] in my opinion, it just needs to be presented differently.”
