New master plan to be developed over next year

In response to the growing student population and changes in institutional goals, A&M-Commerce will begin the process of changing its master plan at the end of this semester.

A master plan, as explained by Vice President for Business and Administration Bob Brown, is a way of organizing the desired changes to the campus based on academic goals. The current plan was set up in 2001 and revisited in 2006.

"It's the institutions vision for education and student services translated into buildings and grounds," Brown said. "We'll take a look out a decade at how the university needs to change its geography, its buildings in order to accommodate where our educational leadership and where our student development leadership wants to take us."

University President Dr. Dan Jones will organize an advisory committee by May that will include students, interested and appropriate faculty members, community members and even regional representation. Over the next year, this committee will determine the steps necessary to achieve academic goals through campus expansion and the best way to organize those ideas.

"It will likely be a large group, and their first charge will be to dream; if you were going to make the institution everything it could be in the next decade," Brown said.

One of the main aspects of a new master plan would be a look at how much the on-campus population will grow based on current efforts. Student Access and Success has set a goal of 3,000 on-campus students, which is 1,100 more than the current population. Brown said this would require big changes.

"In order for that to happen, we have to continue to construct residence halls," he said. "The next one will be a 542 bed residence hall, about twice the size of the one we just built."

That hall will replace Family Housing and likely be the start of an even bigger plan of having four residence halls, including Pride Rock, all in the same area. This would allow for the demolition of Smith and Berry halls.

The master plan will also include objectives that are less thrilling but necessary to create the ideal campus, according to Brown

"As we look at it, there are a couple of priorities that are less sexy but important nonetheless," Brown said. "We need to continue to make this a pedestrian friendly campus. One of the things we'll ask the people doing the master plan with us is to not only listen to us about where we want to take the institution in terms of educational programs, but what kind of campus do we want. Right now the vision is large pedestrian malls in the interior of the campus, parking moved to the outside."

These initiatives, as well as plans to expand the Rayburn Student Center, are already underway before a new master plan has been visualized. In fact, there are even more ideas about how to expand the campus. Developing a new plan will serve to organize these individual goals.

"The first thing it does is it helps you organize everything you want to do," Brown said. "We have been sharing with the legislature over the past couple of years that we want major renovations and an addition to our library. We also want a classroom building. What it does is establishes what is the right sequencing for these."

Brown said there is also talk about Gee Library, and whether making it "more modern" would require renovations or a completely new building.

After a new master plan is approved by the committee and Jones – hopefully by commencement in May 2013 – it will be passed on to the Board of Regents. Should they approve it, the steps in the plan will be implemented over the next 10 years and reviewed at the mid-way point.