Loyola revealed the Kell Munoz Master Plan on Jan. 24 without offering definite cost estimates or a timeline for its completion. While the plan may seem spectacular to outsiders, the revamping of the Loyola campus is not as new as it may appear.
Loyola’s history shows a constant change of scenery, dating back from its beginning in 1911. If we just look back within the last 20 years, the newest addition was Carrollton Hall, completed in 1999. The J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library opened its doors in January of that same year. The 500-car West Road garage was completed in 1996 and the Communications/Music Complex in 1983.
Maroon archives show that the Mathes Group, the architectural firm Loyola used in 1996, planned to have a reflecting pool, tower and arcade. (Since we’re reflecting back, where is that pool, anyway?)
Lately, we’ve started to wonder: Why hasn’t there been more student input during the planning stages of the Munoz plan? The development of our home and environment should greatly include our contributions, especially with the dark cloud of funding questions hanging over the whole affair. It’s obvious that Loyola students, staff and faculty should be a vital part in the decision-making process.
Many questions still loom over the current master plan: What will happen to the existing spaces used by our many organizations to conduct meetings and hold events? How many students actually know that this master plan is in the works? Will it put an increase in our tuition bills?
The dorms’ renovation and building a decade ago cost more than $21 million – not a negligible sum of money.
It is surprising that, despite these questions, only a few students have put forth any real opinion about the plan.
Not that we can point an accusatory finger at our administrators and architects, admonishing them for shutting us out of the project. While some students have taken an active interest in the master plan, and a number of them have expressed concern that their voices aren’t being heard (which we hope administrators take to heart), each of us received an invitation to come to the plan’s unveiling.
And how many students attended? About 15.
Really, though, we can’t blame the no-shows. Sure, there are a lot of unanswered questions hanging in the air, but perhaps we students shouldn’t be realistically expected to care about the grand unveiling of a plan that will only affect the class of 2021.
Perhaps if plans were less nebulous – if a rough timeline, for example, showed some indication of how the master plan will affect us personally – we’d show more inclination to get involved.
