College plans for more construction

This archived article was written by: Heather Myers

Some of the most important issues facing CEU, according to President Ryan Thomas, are the new building projects the college has in the works. The Utah State Legislature approved the Fine Arts Complex as a non-state funded building. A new building on the San Juan campus will provide swing space for the health sciences program while their new building is being built. Thomas held a meeting on March 29 to discuss these issues with the faculty and staff of both the Price and San Juan campus.
Plans have begun on the San Juan campus for a new building between the housing and the foodservice/bookstore building. The new building is called the “quad.” It will provide room for the health sciences program for the time being.
The ground breaking on what will become the permanent home of the health sciences program is planned to be held within the next two months. This building will house health sciences and the library.
Another building in the works in Blanding is a child-care center. The plans for the building have already been drawn. It will be a metal building with a brick facade, but there has been no word as to when construction will begin.
Other plans that have only been talked about on the San Juan campus include a building to house the administration and student services, and a recreation center. The administration and student services building would provide a student commons that the San Juan campus does not have. The recreation center has been discussed as a shared facility with Blanding City and San Juan County.
In Price, the Fine Arts Complex that has been discussed recently has been approved by the legislature. It passed, however, as a non-state funded building, meaning CEU officials must raise all the money to build it.
The complex will house communications, dance, two- and three-dimensional art, choral and instrumental music and drama. It will have multiple-performance areas to alleviate the scheduling problems the performance art programs have with only the Geary Theatre to work in. The new building will also have storage space for all the programs using it (currently the drama department stores their sets and props in a rented-storage facility across town and dance classes are being held in the Armory.)
The next step in getting the complex is to hire architects and plan the building. Thomas would “Love to have input from everyone on how to make the building fit the programs rather than making the program fit the building. We want to make sure the physical environment facilitates the educational mission.” There has been some discussion on where to put the building and apparently the most liked idea is to put it on the vacant Durrant Field.
Discussions about expanding the shop programs from the Career Center are ongoing as they have outgrown their facilities. Thomas would like to expand the automotive, heavy equipment and diesel programs into the parking lot, “without making it look like an accident.” In their building, the exhaust from the shop programs are being taken into the nursing vents and causing some problems.
Thomas expressed a desire to, in the near future, finish the expansion of the BDAC. He also mentioned talks going on with Price City and Carbon County to create a shared library with CEU. This would allow for the library to have more resources, have a larger staff and be open more hours. Thomas emphasized that there are no definite plans for either of these projects, but that they are realistic hopes for the next several years.