Construction projects were in full swing on Oswego State’s campus this summer.
Some refurbishments are easier to spot, such as the sidewalk in front of Cayuga Hall that was dug up and redone, the $250,000 paint job in Mackin Hall and the center staircase in Scales that was reinstalled.
Just as critical as the aesthetic restorations were the projects that dealt with infrastructure.
“There was a wall on the northeast side of Hart that had a water leak that had to be repaired,” said Richard Kolenda, assistant vice president of Residence Life and Housing.
The Village got a $450,000 Wi-Fi update along with refinished countertops, which was a project that was three years in the making.
“Residence Life and Housing gets no funding from the state,” Kolenda said. “The only money we can use is the money that students pay in room rent.”
The budgets for the projects are generated by the projected student room rents for the year. Some projects that seem outwardly simple require a larger budget and a greater amount of resources to complete.
“Sometimes there’s those surprise things. They open up something and they find it doesn’t cost $10,000 to fix, it really costs $25,000,” Kolenda said. A leak in Moreland Hall’s basement could only be repaired by finding the leak’s source which required extensive digging and excavation.
Kolenda stressed the importance of prioritization in project planning: “If it costs more than we project, all the critical ones will get done, and all those that are not detrimental will get pushed off for another year.”
Issues that would negatively impact students’ day-to-day life if not corrected are the ones that are addressed over the summer before move-in.
According to Kolenda, next year Funnelle Hall could see improvements in the building’s Wi-Fi, and renovations to the bathroom that would make them similar to the bathrooms in Waterbury Hall and Scales Hall.
The replacement of the treads on the stairs in Oneida Hall and the restoration of the entry vestibule in the Lakeside Dining Hall are projects that weren’t an immediate priority this summer, but Kolenda said students can hope to see these improvements.
