University President Ronald Vaughn sees big things in the University of Tampa’s future—very big things.
Expanding the university campus to foster its rapidly growing population has been a subject on the board for some time, and the Cass building is selected to be the first in a series of new renovations.
The Cass building, near the northernmost part of the campus, is already one of the newer buildings at UT and was constructed under President Vaughn.
The 8,000 square foot expansion is internally designed to support future additions, and includes an organic chemistry laboratory, chemistry research laboratory and biology research laboratory.
“All are needed for our fast-growing programs in the College of Natural and Health Sciences,” Provost Janet McNew said in a press release.
The new expansion will also follow LEEDs (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) guidelines to be more green and efficient.
The expansion has been generally well-received.
Concerns about a lack of space in crowded lectures weigh heavily on students.
Lauren Ridder, sophomore, is enthusiastic about the new space.
“Another lecture hall for science classes would hopefully lower the overload rate, which is so stressful,”Ridder said.
The extra classrooms and laboratories are being added to increase the effectiveness of the programs both by increasing technological support as well as the capacity to support students.
“This expansion is coming just in time to allow us to give each student some lab space so that they can have a good experience in [an] organic lab and focus on making molecules,” Kenyon Evans-Nguyen, assistant professor of chemistry, said.
Some students, however, have other concerns about the construction.
Patricia Yeazell, junior, criticizes the expansion as a gross misallocation of funds, stating that many older buildings on campus are in dire need of renovation, but will likely never see it if the board continually has to compete with other, more profitable projects.
“I just don’t see why we can’t take care of these problems first,” says Yeazell.
It is unclear how the Cass expansion will measure up in light of these worries, or how well it will solve the problems it is expected to grapple with, but come this August we can be sure to find out.
As a student I understand the lack of parking dilemma. However, I don’t believe the situation is as severe as it is made out to be, especially because most of the construction and the inconvenience because of it is taking place during the summer when the student population is smaller anyway. Parking is a trivial matter in the grand scheme of things in this situation. The Cass Building expansion will be a great new addition to our university and it is needed for our science students to excel, and our College of Natural Sciences to compete with other leading universities.
Though it may appear to some that our school president only promotes what he deems pertinent to him, it is important to remember that there hasn’t been a single leader in history that has pleased all people. President Vaughn is doing what is best for the common good of all at UT. And while a chapel may be viewed useless to some, it is also viewed as useful to others.
To build this new facility, UT dumped 52 faculty/staff parking spaces, and did nothing to relocate the parking anywhere on campus. Parking for faculty/staff was already stretched, and now it’s far worse. It becomes even worse when the Vaughn Center parking lot is half closed for some BS function, like it was on 2/18.
The Facilities department is sympathetic, but they have no power to do anything. The President and Provost don’t care about the issues the rank and file have, as they have reserved spots and a head in the ground attitude.
As a faculty memer I have to agree with the previous posting. But let us not forget that the Provost is doing nothing to help this either.
I am finding this to be the most ridiculous idea for the University of Tampa. Does President Vaughn realize that a large amount of students are missing classes and being late to classes because the school cannot accommodate parking for students? Does he know that Professors themselves are showing up late to classes for the same reasons? There are enough classrooms for classes to take place and if people are overloading, they should seek to hire more professors to diminish the student to professor ratio.
I first came to UT as an International student and once I moved off campus for military reasons, I started regretting attending the school in the first place. I missed so many classes and have received so many parking tickets just because I could not find any reasonable parking.
I also believe that freshmen students should not be allowed to bring cars their first year of school like most schools restrict. But then I guess President Vaughn only seeks what works best for him, like the useless chapel.