The Bloomington Faculty Council met Tuesday and discussed a decrease in student parking, several soon-to-be completed construction projects and a shortage of spots in IU-run daycares.
Construction
Tom Morrison, vice president for capital planning and facilities, discussed the construction projects that have been going on around campus. The main goal of construction is to keep the campus walkable.
“This is a historic campus, and we never want to lose sight of that,” Morrison said.
One project that was recently completed is the Wells Quad renovation and the Goodbody Hall addition.
Further, Morrison said several projects will be completed by the end of this semester, including Luddy Hall, the new home of the School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering; the Conrad Prebys Career Services Center; and the Ray E. Cramer Marching Hundred Hall.
He also said old buildings, such as Ballantine Hall and the Geological Sciences building, will be renovated. Neither building will be changed on the outside and the setup of the classrooms and offices will stay the same, but both buildings will be modernized, and central air will be added to Ballantine.
The biggest project IU is facing right now, which is expected to begin in January, is the Regional Academic Health Center, Morrison said.
Parking and Transportation
The Campus Transportation Policy and Safety committee focused on crosswalks, a concern raised by faculty members. They are placing raised bumps on the road in front of the crosswalk at Fee Lane. Pedestrians will have the right of way if they are on the crosswalk before a car reaches this area.
Another issue discussed was parking, about which Faculty President Alex Tanford said he had received many concerned questions.
Student parking was recently eliminated from the Fee and Poplars Garage before 5 p.m. to allow faculty to park there.
The $24 EM-V parking pass allows faculty to park in some EM-P and EM-S spaces after 5 p.m. The white lot at the stadium that the X bus route travels directly to will no longer be a place for students to store their cars but will be solely for faculty and staff to encourage more purchasing of the EM-V permit.
Child Care
IU has three centers for child care that hold around 171 spots for students, M.A. Venkataramanan, vice provost for finance and strategy, said. There are around 500 people on the waitlist.
Venkataramanan said the highest demand is for toddlers. Expansion of campus child care is part of a strategic plan to add more spots in 2018.
“We have probably the best care in Bloomington,” Venkataramanan said.
All of the teachers in IU’s child care program are accredited.
However, a big discussion surrounding child care is what to do with the parent-run co-ops that offer a form of child care on campus. The co-ops are becoming too big of a risk for IU to continue to support them, Provost Lauren Robel said.
IU is going to give the co-ops one more year of support and has notified them of their withdrawal, putting those resources behind IU’s accredited child care.
The parents have been offered priority spots in IU’s newest expansion of their child care or the option to run the co-ops off-campus.
