Faculty members are increasingly concerned about the delays in the renovation of the Natural Sciences Building. “It is imperative that renovation start soon because we are in a competitive environment where students have options to attend neighboring colleges,” said Bright Emenike, acting chair of the Department of Chemistry and Physics at SUNY Old Westbury.
The building was constructed in 1985 as a “teaching and research facility for biological sciences, chemistry, physics, and public health programs.” After three decades without any renovation or changes to the building, a two-phase renovation and addition project was planned to start in 2016, which was intended to “preserve and modernize both the interior and exterior of the planning facility.”
The enrollment rate at Old Westbury is at stake, as according to information provided in a OW council meeting in December. Buffalo State University lost 15% of their enrollment this past semester after a 10-year renovation project that just recently completed (and are projected to lose another 15%).
Negative impacts are even being seen right now on the OW campus. The current state of the building is considered unsustainable due to its smaller space compared to other campuses like Farmingdale. There is also a lack of proper technology infrastructure.Professors who work in the building are even being denied grants due to the ongoing situation.
“There are a lot of factors to securing grants, and having the basic infrastructure to support a grant proposal is one of the main considerations,” Ms. Emenike said. “Unfortunately, a grant proposal submitted by one of the science faculty was denied in which the lack of infrastructural support was one of the reasons for the denial. The state of the science building needs improvement.”
The campus has been so intent on getting the project up and running that an email was even sent out by Chris Hartmann (assistant professor in the department of health at Old Westbury) urging fellow professors to reach out to New York State to address concerns.
Despite the lack of progress on the project so far, campus provost Duncan Quarless remains optimistic that things will improve sooner rather than later. “What the project is now is…a renovation project where we’ve identified the potential for a different space to help us with what we originally wanted in the addition,” said Quarless. “The short answer is there has been an expressed concern about this, but we are also seeing what is some advancement to meting out some of the goals that have been set up.”
