Joint facilities updates planned

Following data analysis from a satisfaction survey completed last spring, the first joint facilities master plan for CSB+SJU has been completed and is set to be presented to the boards of trustees on May 17.

Last year’s student satisfaction survey, which was carried out through a collaboration with the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS), provided administration with responses from students, faculty, staff and the monastic community on how facilities are perceived on campus and potential areas of improvement.

CSB+SJU Chief Operating Officer Kara Kolomitz said that following the survey, clear patterns emerged in what community members were looking for with campus improvements.

“Many of the results of the survey [displayed] a desire for more student-centered spaces and showed that services and offices were pretty scattered across the campuses. There was a clear need for a cohesive, vibrant, accessible place for services, amenities, offices, those types of things,” Kolomitz said.

Many of the upcoming projects are not ready to be unveiled to students in full, especially before board approval in May. However, Kolomitz said that data from the survey has pushed some campus issues like housing and parking to the top of the priority list.

“We learned a lot about junior and senior housing options on both campuses, and that is something we are planning on taking very seriously,” Kolomitz said. “Student feedback about amenities and facilities are critical, and it’s also because of the results of that survey that we are going to re-examine parking on campus and implement some new parking policies.”

Using data from the survey, a three-part facilities plan was created with three sections: discovery, deferred maintenance and emergent opportunities. The discovery category is made up of projects that are primarily influenced by survey data and based on student wants and needs. Deferred maintenance is regular improvements to existing infrastructure and other more urgent repairs. The final category, emergent opportunities, is potential new ideas that don’t originate from survey data, which are usually brought forward by a smaller subset of the campus community.

With this new facilities approach under the Financial and Operational Excellence portion of CSB+SJU’s institutional strategic plan, Kolomitz said administration is looking to solidify their future projects as a structured joint venture between campuses.

“The primary goal of this plan is to work around strong integration, considering that this is the first master plan that both institutions are doing together,” Kolomitz said. “We’re coming together to try and think about what defines both campuses in terms of facilities and what the future looks like, so that’s big for us.”

CSB+SJU Chief Financial Officer Anne Oberman said that since many of the projects within the plan aren’t entirely set in stone, they will be adapted based on student need and feedback in the coming years.

“Oftentimes schools, including ours, would write a master plan that was set for five, 10, 15 years in the future, and that was it. But we decided with so many things changing both in higher education in general and here on campus that we would have it be more of an evolving plan,” Oberman said. “If in two years we say, ‘why did we even want to do that?’ then we’re going to change it and adjust. The most emergent things will happen quicker, but with some of those other projects we’ll have time to talk.”

Oberman said that students will hopefully begin to see these improvements on campus by fall semester as projects begin this summer. She said that most of the upcoming work that is headed to the design phase will be related to the deferred maintenance and discovery portions of the plan, with a focus on the survey results that asked for more spaces for students to gather.

“One of the bigger things that came out of the survey was that there didn’t always feel like there was a strong presence on either campus with student hubs. So, with that there’s some renovations, some rebuilds, and some outdoor spaces that will be coming up,” Oberman said.

A committee of the Boards of Trustees called buildings and grounds is the first to review new projects, which is followed by the finance and strategic resources committee’s review. Oberman said that many projects are in the pricing out phase to determine whether to use donor gifts, reserves, or a combination of both before they decide which projects will move forward when.

“Based on the financial side of things, the timeline that our facilities director has will be amended as needed. It’s not even just the money piece; it’s also the bandwidth. We couldn’t possibly have two giant projects on both campuses or even on one at the same time. So, it’s going to be pieced out for sure,” Oberman said.

New developments and improvements are completed consistently on both campuses, but the last mass round of facilities improvements took place in 2023, where millions of dollars of changes were implemented on both campuses ahead of the 2023-24 school year. These included the completion of the new Seton Village and Johnnie Mini Mart at SJU, and a revamped Benedicta Arts Center courtyard and lighting improvements at CSB. Under the old facilities planning approach, these projects were executed without a structured joint strategic process driving them.

This time around, Kolomitz said that students can expect a more holistic approach to facilities improvements. Marking the first combined plan, she said administration will be considering changes as a way to improve the full CSB+SJU experience, and not necessarily a split-campus approach.

“We will give attention to both campuses simultaneously, and in complementary ways. So it’s not like we’re going to say for example, ‘if we build a residence hall at CSB so then we need one at SJU.’ It’s not going to be mirrored; it’s going to be what each campus needs,” Kolomitz said.

With this change, Kolomitz said she hopes students will see the complete picture of these changes and not look comparatively between campuses, considering how many Bennies and Johnnies interact with either campus each day.

“There will be quality of life enhancement on both campuses, and I would encourage people to not look at what’s “equal” per se, but what is best and most needed on each individual campus,” Kolomitz said. “We’re beginning to ask each other, ‘do we need two of everything?’ That is something that the students are going to need to consider too. We may not have the exact same offerings on both campuses, and maybe that’s okay.”

SJU senior and St. John’s Senate Trustee Charlie Bills has been in conversations with administration about the new facilities approach ahead of its upcoming board presentation. He said he is hopeful that continued student feedback will inform this plan as it evolves in the next few years, which is fueled by a need for survey use.

“The thing I think would be ideal is to push even more student feedback. It’s hard sometimes with email surveys, but implementing more programs that say, ‘we’re basing the future of the school on this feedback’ might be helpful. Whether that’s integrating it into your classrooms, or making it a graduation requirement, we need the engagement,” Bills said.

CSB junior Allyson Florek echoed a desire for an expansion of student feedback processes when it comes to capital improvements.

“In general, I think a more streamlined approach to facilities feedback is what I’m interested in. Whether it’s housing or anything else, some more structure to how we tell admin what we need is helpful,” Florek said.

Bills said that he thinks facilities improvements should focus specifically on significant student need rather than just addressing face- value upgrades.

“We need to think about where students are really struggling during their four-year experience. It’s looking into the fitness center where people complain that it is too small, and everyone is on top of each other. It’s having new technology for students to use. It’s having new parking lots and procedures, so a million people aren’t getting parking tickets every day. Those are things that are needs as opposed to the glitz and the glamour,” Bills said.

Florek said that her perception of this type of student need includes parking adjustments and housing, but also expanded food access.

“An issue I’ve always dealt with is a lack of food options after night classes, since a lot of food halls are closed on both campuses, and as a former student athlete, I had the same problem after practice too. The mini mart at SJU addresses some of that, but even new vending machines or other solutions in residence halls could help. That’s just one example of the sort of thing that I hope they’reconsidering in terms of basic assistance,” Florek said.

Kolomitz and Oberman said they expect the new plan to be approved by the boards quickly, and projects will start moving shortly after with more public details to come.

As the facilities plan and subsequent improvements evolve to be more inclusive of CSB+SJU’s identity with strong integration, Bills said he thinks the success of the new facilities projects will be dependent on whether the entire community can view the improvements as part of a comprehensive joint program.

“I think [administration is] prioritizing the fact that we all use both campuses. You have to claim both campuses, so you realize the needs of both matters more than just one over the other,” Bills said. “It can quickly become a competition when it’s not. The two schools have to move together and with each other.”