I arrived at Mercer just in time for the construction. When you look through the hunched over fence by the Fine Arts building you can see an empty wasteland. However, the place is way more active than it seems.
One day in my 2D Design class, I remember a student trying to explain their art piece for a critique. All of a sudden this loud, rattling erupted out of nowhere. A construction worker was right outside the window drilling away at the ground.
You never know when the workers are going to jumpscare you. The times they work are so random that it seems like there is no organization to it at all. You’d think they would try to work on days where classes aren’t running, but sadly they don’t. Plus I doubt they get to set their schedule, and I realize the campus is in use most of the week.
Apparently, they are building a new University Center to accommodate the growing number of four-year school programs being offered directly on our campus by universities like Rutgers, William Paterson and Wilmington.
Students can graduate from Mercer, apply to one of those programs if they have a major you want, and do their remaining two years of college right on the West Windsor campus and at a reduced tuition rate. It’s sensible and convenient on one hand, but up to now the programs have been stuck offering a lot of night and online classes because of lack of classroom space. It sounds like the project is aimed to address that.
One of the onsite coordinators is Leonard J. Winogora, an adjunct Philosophy professor at Mercer who is the coordinator for the William Paterson transfer students.
He says, “We’ll have our own facilities, so we won’t be using up valuable classroom space and office space in Mercer’s buildings,”.
If you ever go to Professor Winogora’s office you can see how randomly placed it is in the LA building. Such an important office doesn’t belong there.
When asked about the University Center itself, Winogora stated that “the idea was proposed by [the College’s president] Dr. Wang and presented to the 4-5 [university] partners at the time.”
So right off the bat this center was going to be utilized by multiple universities and was planned way in advance. I appreciate that, but how much discussion was there about the impact it would have on current students who have paid their tuition and are trying to get an education?
The construction is also a pain for the Fine Arts professors. An Adjunct Professor at Mercer, Dave DiMarchi, teaches Printmaking and 2D Design in the FA building. He says the main concerns are not even about the sounds of construction, he is more concerned about “the long term future of the current FA building or the immediate future of holding classes in current spaces.”
DiMarchi adds that “The biggest interruption to most seems to be the loss of the faculty/staff parking lot adjacent to the FA building.”
And even though DiMarchi works “on a less populated day,” this loss of a parking lot has negatively affected professors. Some students are sliding into the other spots being cordoned off for faculty at the edge of the student lot and professors say they are frustrated with the situation, no matter how temporary it may be.
And how long is it supposed to take? Clearly a while longer.
While researching for this article I did come around a bit on the whole thing. My view was shifted in particular by Professor Winogora’s new hope for the identity for his university students. With this new center, he says students and coordinators of different universities can “more or less identify ourselves as our universities. Many students feel that they want a sense of differentiation between the community college and the universities. So we will be working on that for their purposes.”
If I was one of those students, I can understand it would be quite confusing having to go on a campus that is not really your own.
Professor Winogora also mentioned a secondary issue I hadn’t considered at all. He said, “When President Trump put a tariff on steel, it significantly raised the price which forced cutbacks on the original plans. And as a result the center probably is somewhat smaller than anticipated. But the action was of President Trump…and NOT the president of the college.”
That makes sense, and I can see the pros outweigh the cons.
It’s not like I want them to stop building the center, I understand that it’s important. I’m sure there will be good that comes from the chaos. And with growth comes growing pains, but the incoming students weren’t warned and fine art studies require quiet concentration. If the project can’t be helped, maybe some of our classrooms could at least be temporarily moved until it is completed? Is that so much to ask?
