THE PENDULUM
Campus bookstore,
DEVELOPMENT from PAGE 1
WEDNESDAY. CXJTOBER 27. 2010 // PAGE 3
retail space to be added
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN MCDONALD
The proposed elevation of Williamson Avenue Building has been finalized with Elon University administration.
bookstore no later than June
15, 2011, which will give the
bookstore 45 days to stock
books and other items."
On Aug. 1, the new bookstore
will have a “soft opening,”
according to McDonald, that
will last until the last week of
August.
“They want to have time to
work out the kinks between
Aug. 1 and when the freshmen
come,” he said. “When the full
student body comes in the fall
of 2011, the store will be up and
running.”
At the Oct. 14 meeting of
the Media Board, House said
the space now occupied by
the bookstore will be used for
a career center after the new
building is completed.
“It is one of the programs
that we really need to ramp-up,
give more space to really put it
in a key location,” House said
at the meeting. “Then we move
the career center out, that gives
us more space for a math and
computing science department.
So those are the dominoes that
are going to happen.”
McDonald said he views the
construction of thenewbuilding
as Phase 1 of a plan to make the
town more of a destination
point for students as well as
community members.
“1 kind of look at this as the
kickoff of what we hope will
be a new look and offering for
downtown Elon,” he said.
At the Media Board meeting.
House said one of the facets of
Elon's 10-year strategic plan is
the renovation of downtown
Elon.
“As part of that strategic
plan, we interviewed alumni,
we interviewed faculty, we
interviewed students and we
interviewed people in the area,”
he said at the meeting. “And one
very clear theme that came up
was ‘you have to do something
about downtown Elon.’”
He said there is also the
possibility of a three-story
building where the College
Street Tap House is currently
located, though it is unclear
when this plan will be
finalized.
According to McDonald, he
is also working with the Town
of Elon on the project, who he
described as very excited about
the plan.
“The Town of Elon actually
has a land use ordinance and
that ordinance specifies various
aspects of development,” he
said. “As a result, we are very
much in partnership with the
town and they will ultimately,
through a technical review
committee, review final
construction plans based on
the ordinances.”
Town of Elon Manager Mike
Dula said the town will only
be responsible for ensuring
the building fits zoning
requirements and won't be
involved in determining what
fills the building.
McDonald said he is
under contract with the town
regarding the height of the
building and the “footprint” it
will leave.
“I think they’ll be pleased
with the look of the building,"
he said. “1 would describe it as a
traditional design, but you will
also see what I describe as more
urban features.”
During the construction,
McDonald said they will be
mindful of other vendors and
will work to accommodate the
right flow of traffic.
“The university has a
vacant lot caddy-corner to the
lighthouse,” he said. “We’re
going to use that for parking
for construction vehicles and to
housesomeoftheinfrastructure
during construction.”
Roof on new Loy Center building collapses
because of wind, sets construction back slightly
CONSTRUCTION from PAGE 1
Alumni Gym
New seating and a new floor were included in the
interior renovations of Alumni Gym and a new entrance
has been constructed on the south side of the building,
facing Haggard Avenue. Bromilow said as that entrance
Si.'was being built, there were some changes in design that
delayed the project.
Originally, there was supposed to be a planter in the
center of the exterior patio, but that was dismantled to
make more room for people to stand.
Last week, the Phoenix Athletics logo and the concrete
lettering of “Alumni Gym” were hoisted into place.
Bromilow sciid that the goal to have the interior work
done by Oct. 15 was achieved.
Colonnades C & D
Bromilow said that although students have not been
inconvenienced much by the Loy Center or Alumni Gym
construction, it is a different case behind Koury Business
Center, where two new Colonnades dormitories are rapidly
increasing in size.
“The tram road behind A and B has been for busses
only,” he said. “Now it’s the construction road.”
He added that this has presented a new safety concern,
since students used to cut across the field diagonally, but
the new shortest path is the tram road, and students aren’t
always paying attention to traffic moving around them.
“They’re looking out for you, but you need to look out
for them,” said Bromilow.
Sophomore Laura Jones, a Danieley resident, said she is
one of these students who often travels on the trcim path.
“I don’t really see the construction vehicles as a safety
concern,” she Sciid. “But there is quite a bit of construction
debris around the walking path sometimes.”
Students who live in the current Colonnades can also
hear noise from the construction site.
“I hear it a lot, but it doesn’t bother me at all,” said
freshman Catherine Ayers.
Bromilow said the worst of the noise happened while
there were relatively few people on campus.
“This summer,” he said, “we had three drilling
machines drilling from seven in the morning to eight at
night.”
According to Bromilow, there are 112 wells, each of
them six inches in diameter and 440 feet deep. Pipes circle
water through these wells, providing heat and cooling to
the new buildings. He said they hope to have a roof on by
the end of December, and then most of the work will be
on the inside.
Alumni Field House
The Alumni Field House and Hendrickson Football
Center broke ground in November of last year and is slated
for completion this December, according to Brad Moore,
associate director of planning, design and construction
management.
He said the field house still requires some interior
finishing, like carpeting and paint, and the exterior is still
lacking some windows and doors as well as sidewalks
and landscaping. He Sciid no students or faculty will
be permitted inside the building until a certificate of
occupancy is obtained in late December.
“1 think that it will be a significant addition to our
campus,” he said.
Finishing the Job
Bromilow said that although all projects are moving
along on schedule, weather has beenafactoras construction
continues. Although North Carolina experienced a very hot
and dry summer, the fall has had plenty of heavy rains. He
said rain may dry up around campus a few hours after the
last drops have fallen, but it can turn a construction site
into a swamp for several days.
News editors Jack Dodson and Caitlin O'Donnell also
contribued to this report.
JUUA MURPHY I soft Ptx>tograptwr
The construction site for the future Colonnades dorms.
Board of trustees approves masters in science for physician’s assistant program
Jack Dodson
News Editor
A master of science program in physician’s
assistant studies was approved by Elon
University’s Board of Trustees during the Oct. 22
-Oct. 23 meetings, making it the sixth graduate
program at the school looking to start as early
as fall 2012 or January 2013.
Since fall 2008, Elon University officials have
been looking into creating the program, but it
needed to determine its feasibility and a location
on campus. Administrators have been working
in the last few months to find funding for the
program, according to a press release from the
University.
A feasibility committee was made up of 12
members, according to the press release, and
found the idea for the graduate program to be
a good one because of an increase in physicians
assistant jobs available in North Carolina during
the next several years.
“There aren’t enough physical therapists to
meet all the needs of people who need therapy,”
said Elizbeth Rogers, assistant dean of the
doctorate of physical therapy program in a
former interview.
The program will require about 28 months of
study for each graduating class and is part of
a larger move on the part of science graduate
programs. The Doctor of Physical Therapy
program will be moving from the first floor of
the McMichael Science Building to a building on
Haggard Avenue formerly operated by Smithfield
Foods, while undergraduate sciences will take
over that floor. The same building is being
looked at to house the physician’s assistant
graduate program.
Each class will enroll about 36 students,
and the program will require about six faculty
members to start out, as well as a director, a
clinical director, a medical director and other
staff members. Elon’s program will require
about 17,000 square feet of space, including a
human anatomy lab.