Thomas has ambitious campus-wide plans
Introducing his plans, President Ryan Thomas outlined his concerns for the College of Eastern Utah in the next five years that benefit students who are studying automotive, fine arts, science and welding.
Currently fine arts departments are located across campus, the career center, the SAC building and the music building. Thomas plans to place a new fine arts center to bring a systematic layout to the campus. “We think that there would be great strength in having those programs with greater proximity to each other.”
This archived article was written by: Benjamin Waldon
Introducing his plans, President Ryan Thomas outlined his concerns for the College of Eastern Utah in the next five years that benefit students who are studying automotive, fine arts, science and welding.
Currently fine arts departments are located across campus, the career center, the SAC building and the music building. Thomas plans to place a new fine arts center to bring a systematic layout to the campus. “We think that there would be great strength in having those programs with greater proximity to each other.”
From art galleries, to theatrical performances, “The major building project” is planned to hold all of CEU’s fine art programs. The building will have offices for instructors as well as classrooms for the students.
Merging CEU’s library with the communities is also a plan that is being discussed heavily, would not only benefit the students of CEU but also the community.
This merge will also create more of a relationship between students and non-students of all ages.
Another new facility that is being considered is a recreation center, where students will be able to have free play on the basketball courts all day long. The recreation center could also include various other recreational activities such as more racquetball courts.
Other additions on campus include extending the BDAC to include another basketball court that will allow the college to extend its’ athletic program. This may also create a way for basketball free time for students while the recreation center is still pending.
The career center is also being looked at as far as extending. The plan is to connect the center to a nearby complex; this plan will give more room for the automotive and welding departments and solve the ventilation problem that is existent on the second floor of the center.
If the center is expanded, then the ventilation will be rerouted to come out of the nearby warehouse complex, and will no longer affect the students and faculty that are located on the second floor, which is where the vents lead now.
The CEU Prehistoric Museum will be relocated near the Highway 6 and expanded to include a paleontological garden.
Thomas and other community members hope that relocating the museum near the freeway will bring in more visitors, and the garden will create a place where kids will more likely want to visit.
Very vague plans are also in place to move the Applied Technology College near CEU to make the utilities that CEU has, such as the library, usable to ATC as well.
Possible spots to break ground for the new buildings are west of the Reeves building, and north of the career center.
If the fine arts center is to be completed, there could be more spots to build because the old fine arts buildings are likely to be torn down “Due to age of the facility,” and because “both the theater and the music building have cracking due to subsidence issues.”
Although most of these plans are decided upon when the money is collected either from the state or private sources, Thomas hopes to have the fine arts center done a year from next July. The museum is due to be done sooner then that for sake of other sources of funding.
Other programs that are in the planning stages will be taken care of at a future date.
Before anything is done committees will be formed that will have students and faculty to vote on how the design is going to look.
