news-record.com

GREENSBORO — After a meeting Wednesday with a group of passionate alumni, UNCG Chancellor Linda Brady said the school is nowhere near a decision on what to do with seven of its oldest buildings.

Built between 1919 and 1923, the dormitories make up the campus Quad. They are outdated and in serious disrepair, with bad wiring and plumbing. They also lack air conditioning, fire sprinklers and handicapped access. Some officials believe it would be cheaper and easier to demolish them and build new ones in their place with similar architecture.

Preservationists, including students and alumni, want to see the buildings renovated rather than destroyed.

“We’re looking at how to be a modern university,” said Jeff Colbert, a political science professor and president of the school’s Alumni Association. “That means we have to decide what we change and what we need to leave alone.”

Colbert said he doesn’t have a strong opinion, but most of the alumni with whom he’s spoken favor restoration over construction.

“It’s a group of people who have a lot invested in the campus, emotionally and in some cases financially,” Colbert said. “They want to preserve the campus’ history, but I think we all recognize that there are some things that need to change.”

Whether it’s renovation or reconstruction, change needs to come soon. The campus will see 1,200 new on-campus students by 2017, the university estimates. Sitting on about 200 acres, the school is nearly out of places to build new dorms.

No state or tuition money goes toward campus housing; the dorms are maintained with what the school makes from student rent.

School officials say between their antiquated design and poor condition, the Quad dorms simply can’t compare to the newer off-campus apartments they have to compete with for student rent money.

Gutting the dorms and renovating their shells would actually decrease the number of beds they could offer, university officials say. That would mean a new 600-bed dorm would have to be built somewhere else on campus, in addition to the renovation.

Whether renovated or rebuilt, the school estimates the new Quad would cost a little more than $100 million. The sooner the decision is made, the cheaper it would be.

“In a perverse way, the economic downturn is great for construction,” Colbert said. “If you can afford to build now, construction people are begging for the work. So, my reading is that we’d like to do it sooner than later because of that.”

At a forum on the Quad’s future last week, Brady said she’d like to see a decision by May 1. But Colbert said as more students, staff and alumni weigh in on the issue, the more unlikely that seems.

“I think it may be a summer decision now, and whatever is decided will happen in the fall,” he said. “Whatever decision is made, you’ll have people who wish we’d done something different. But I think the chancellor knows that the more people she involves now, the more buy-in there will be for the final decision.”

Toward that end, Brady is holding another forum on the issue at 3 p.m. today in the Cone Ballroom of Elliott University Center. Earlier in the day, the school’s board of trustees will see a presentation on the issue and all the school’s options.

Linda Carter, executive director of the Alumni Association, said the school has a history of good stewardship of its historic buildings. She points to Aycock Auditorium, the Foust Building and the Alumni House, all of which were restored rather than replaced.

“I hope they’ll continue that tradition and preserve the history of these buildings,” Carter said. “But I know that whatever the decision, all the voices are being weighed very carefully.”

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com