l

HOME | NEWS | FEATURES | A&E | OPINION | SPORTS | CLASSIFIEDS | WEATHER

News

What's inside

Police log map

Find the destinations Mercyhurst College Police and Safety responded to over the past week.

This week's front page

Check out this week's front page.

PicHurst

The events - in pictures - that occurred on the Mercyhurst College campus over the past week.

Blogs

Blog with your favorite Merciad columnist.

Feedback & subscriptions

The Merciad is always interested in feedback. Please submit all feedback to editormerciad.

Contacts

Want to tell us what's on your mind? See news happening? Contact a reporter, columnist, or editor.

President announces $32M expansion

By Joshua Wilwohl

Editor-in-chief

More buildings, more faculty and more students is the drive behind Mercyhurst College’s new $32 million expansion plan. It will also mean more debt.

Dr. Thomas Gamble, the college’s president, announced Monday the school’s strategic initiative for the next five years.

"This plan is about Mercyhurst students," he said. "It’s about the growth and excellence of the college."

Gamble outlined his proposal to more than 150 faculty members, administrators and students in the Mary D’Angelo Performing Arts Center.

He said the price tag of $32 million comprises $25 million from a bond issue, while the remaining $7 million will come from donations, such as those made by the board of trustees.

The $25 million, according to Gamble, will push the school’s debt close to $55 million. He said the school’s current long-term debt is around $30 million.

Gamble said the college plans to pay back the debt annually over a 25-year period with the school’s $100 million-a-year revenue.

He said the plan calls for construction of a 318-room, $14 million residence hall and a $10 to $12 million academic building that will house the intelligence program and business school on the Erie campus.

"We want to move into competitive intelligence for business and the ability to provide the good reputation of the intelligence program," he said.

The location of the residence hall will be east of Tullio Field.

"Mercy apartments and McAuley Hall are overcrowded," Gamble said. "To decrease the density of students, we want to provide another residence hall."

Construction for the residence hall will start in June, according to the college’s Associate Vice President of Administration Tyrone Moore.

Warde townhouses will be demolished to make way for the new academic building, which will be located west of the bookstore.

Gamble said there are open upperclassman apartments that will make up for the space lost by the Warde townhouses.

"There is still space available in Briggs Avenue apartments and the new residence hall will provide additional housing as well," he said.

Gamble also said freshmen and upperclassmen could be living together in the new residence building.

"There are no real plans laid out yet," he said.

Construction for the academic building is expected to start over the next two years.

Students reacted to the announced plans by saying the construction of new buildings on the Erie campus is not needed.

"If they are using money to take nice housing down, why not invest it into fixing up the older housing," said junior Jenna Barone. "We spend two to three years in the apartments and only one in the dorms."

Sophomore Jen Mihu shares Barone’s opinion.

"It is not necessary to spend that much money on stuff we don’t need. They just renovated the suites," she said. "We don’t need huge projects that raise tuition and put the school further into debt."

Mercyhurst North East, according to Gamble, will see $500,000 in renovations to the First National Bank building, purchased by the school in 2006.

A residence hall will also be constructed on the North East campus, north of the current residence building.

Other initiatives of Gamble’s plan include recruiting top-notch faculty with the help of newly appointed provost Dr. James Adovasio.

"(Adovasio will) work with the leadership of the faculty senate to make substantial progress in the quality of faculty work life with an eye toward improving the opportunities available to them for excellent teaching and advising, to remain in active and fruitful dialogue with their disciplines, for high quality faculty-student relationships and for student research," Gamble said during his speech.

Mercyhurst faculty member Dr. Richard O’Dell, a professor of education, said this project is one that could launch Mercyhurst into another division of learning.

"This has been in the plans for years now," he said. "This was discussed when Gamble came on board and it’s great that he wants to see the campus grow and upgrade."

O’Dell said the addition of new buildings will help relieve the stress caused by the lack of classroom and residential space.

"We need more physical space," said O’Dell. "We are maxed out right now and need to concentrate on growing."

Gamble said his plan is to provide the best education possible to Mercyhurst students.
"We’re more expensive than most public schools, so in order to provide the premium for students to pay, we must provide more than an education," he said.

Gamble emphasized that this plan is Mercyhurst’s most ambitious project in its history and said he hopes to see an increase in students on the campuses.

"I see this as being a school of 5,000 kids," he said. "Erie campus will increase by 200 to 300 students, while North East will increase by 400 to 500 students and West will increase by 100 students."