Work on the Morris Family Multicultural Student Center is on schedule to be completed in time for the fall 2020 semester, said Adrian Rodriguez, associate vice president for student life of diversity and multicultural student affairs.
Utilities relocation and upgrades began last week, as crews cut into Mid-Campus Drive.
“We just got started with site preparation, and the utilities project is the first thing that they’re getting into right now,” Rodriguez said.
Chilled water, steam, sewer and power lines will be rerouted to accommodate and provide service for the future center. Once the utilities project is completed, Rodriguez said work will move on to excavation, shoring and foundation work.
The Multicultural Student Center has been in the works for several years. In 2015, Kirk Schulz, then-university president, announced plans to begin securing donations for a “Campus Multicultural Center” in a letter to students at the start of the 2015-2016 academic year.
“It’s been a longtime vision for the university,” Rodriguez said. “It goes back to some great student leaders, faculty, staff that have advocated for the need for a Multicultural Student Center.”
Rodriguez said the momentum on the project picked up in the last few years.
“This is something that has been a vision and longed for for some years now, but in the last couple years we’ve had a great deal of momentum generated in the last two years with some great fundraising that has moved us much closer to bringing the building to fruition,” he said.
