» By Kenneth Lilly
The Master Planners, the individuals responsible for coming up with the future vision for APSU for 2030 met with the Student Government Association on Wednesday, Sept. 26. The Master Planners are Arthur Lidsky, partner with Dober, Lidsky and Mathey, Margret Spencer, Yewelline King, administrative assistant for other budget pool, Jay Everett, consultant with Lose and Associates and Alvin Westerman, director of facilities planning and projects. Two companies are associated with coming up with the plan: Dober, Lidsky and Mathey and Lose and Associates Inc.
These companies and individuals are currently conducting a study regarding how the academic buildings are used and the future population of the university, amongst other things.
The study has produced a large amount of data regarding how the campus is used, including which walking paths are taken more often, which buildings are more consistently filled with students and faculty and which parking lots see the most traffic.
One of the current issues the planners are facing is the size of the APSU environmental footprint, which for the number of students is unusually small, said Lidsky.
In order to expand academic buildings, other than the already planned Math and Science building, the university will need to acquire more land. The issue most often mentioned by students and sometimes even faculty is the parking issue.
Currently, APSU has 4,406 parking spaces on campus, with another 400-500 on street spaces nearby. This means for every 100 students, there are 60 parking places.
Not all of these are designated for student parking however, so the actual number is even less. The possibility of a parking deck is being considered.
The meeting was cut short by a test of the fire alarm system in the M.U.C. so the SGA Senate did not have the opportunity to conduct their normal session.
The coming weeks feature a visit to President Hall’s residence for the SGA to discuss current policies and possible changes coming to the campus.
The Master Planners held an open forum on Thursday, Sept. 27 in 103C in the M.U.C. However, the meeting came to a quick conclusion due to a lack of interest by the student body.
The SGA meets in M.U.C. 307 at 4 p.m. every Wednesday. Members of the student body are encouraged to attend the meetings to express comments, concerns or observe how the students they voted for are working for them.
More information about the APSU Master Plan as well as PDFs can be found at apsu.edu/master-plan.
