The Undergraduate Budget Priorities Committee sent out an email Thursday morning to Northwestern undergraduates outlining a budget plan for campus improvements in the next academic year.
The proposals were compiled from student feedback and collected by the UBPC via online surveys. The results were presented to the University Budget Committee, chaired by Provost Daniel Linzer. The final list of eight proposals is set to receive University funding.
The proposed campus improvements include increasing cell phone reception in the Technological Institute and the University Library, installing wireless access in selected rooms of Tech and Parkes Hall, placing additional bike racks in high traffic areas and renovating 1856 Orrington Ave. to increase upperclassman housing options. The housing renovation will begin with creating 24 dorm rooms by the end of this summer, UBPC president Jonathan Green said.
Outgoing Associated Student Government president and UBPC member Claire Lew said she and the committee are very pleased with the recent budget proposal, especially the increased cell phone reception.
“We were really ecstatic about getting cell phone reception in the library in Tech,” the SESP junior said. “That is something as ASG president I lobbied for and worked for, along with my vice president, Hiro.”
The increased cell phone reception will be made possible by the Distributed Antenna System, the same technology that was used to expand reception in Norris University Center last year.
Green said better cell phone reception will allow students to connect with one another more easily.
“Students really want to be meet with their groups and such,” the Weinberg junior said. “It was really difficult and such without good cell reception to do that.”
Safety was also taken into consideration in the decision to expand cell phone reception in University buildings, Green said.
“Especially with Tech and the incidents that have happened with assault, having cell service gives students another avenue for protecting themselves,” he said.
In addition to these facility improvements, the proposal requests continued funding for the A&O Fall Blowout Concert to take place in Welsh-Ryan Arena. The concert was originally moved there for University President Schapiro’s Inaugural Concert in 2009 and received positive student feedback in the UBPC’s surveys.
As another facility improvement, the 2015 freshman convocation is now set to take place in the Sports Pavilion and Aquatic Center so the entire freshman class will feel part of a community.
Also included in the budget proposal are a student activities grant to help fund low-income students’ participation in extracurricular activities and a faculty-student interaction grant to provide funds for interaction between the two communities outside of the classroom.
Though only eight of the 11 proposals passed, Green considers the current budget proposal a success. The three proposals that are not on the list and will not be immediately pursued are the construction of a new student center, the availability of electronic course packets and the installation of wind turbines on campus.
Green emphasizes, however, that all three of these items are still possibilities in the future.
“We are really setting a vision about how the University should be thinking about construction and building in the coming years,” Green said.
