Regents to review plan to change campus
University project will add parking garages, move sorority house if implemented
By Lindsay Young
Senior staff writer
The NU Board of Regents will
mull over a plan Saturday that could
change the face of the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln campus within the
next 12 or more years.
The regents will focus on the pre
liminary master plans for all four NU
campuses as they decide whether the
blueprints map out the course they
want the university to take at the 8:30
a.m. meeting at the Nebraska Center
. il
for Continuing Education, 33rd and
Holdrege streets.
The board cannot approve all of
the projects proposed in the plans
Saturday. Those projects, such as the
building of five new parking struc
tures on UNL’s campuses, have to be
approved separately at different board
meetings.
But NU spokeswoman Dara
Troutman said it is possible that some
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projects in the preliminary plans will
be voted on as early as January or
February 1999.
Major parts of the plan include a
grassy corridor that will extend from
Memorial Stadium to the Beadle
Center, cutting traffic off at 14th, 16th
and 17th streets on City Campus.
That traffic will be routed to
Antelope Valley Parkway, a thorough
fare that is planned to run along cam
pus’ east side.
A 50-foot wooded area will sur
round East Campus on all but the west
side. A new recreation center will be
built on East Campus.
John Benson, director of institu
tional research and planning, said he
anticipates at least one parking struc
ture’s program statement will be on
the regents’ agenda in the spring
semester. The structure will be located
at 14th Street and Avery Avenue.
The last time master plans were
examined at a regents meeting was in
December 1991, when the plans for
the four campuses indicated a general
direction, not a set path, for the uni
versity to take, Troutman said.
The difference between then and
now, Regent Nancy O’Brien of
Waterloo said, was that the regents
now look at the university system as a
whole.
In 1991, the university campuses
were more segmented, she said.
“In this process we will be looking
a little more at how the plans relate to
each other and to the university as a
whole,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien also said the more recent
plan is much more extensive than the
1991 blueprints.
Some of the changes that were
proposed in 1991 are integrated into
the plan to be presented to the regents
at this week’s meeting.
way that will wind around the east
a
In this process we will be looking a little
more at how the plans relate to each other
and to the university as a whole ”
Nancy O’Brien
NU regent
side of campus and the changing of
16th and 17“ streets to two-way.
Benson predicts the university
will follow through on many projects
in the plan.
“There’s certainly a substantial
group that will go forward,” Benson
said. All of the projects included in a
deferred maintenance bill passed by
the Nebraska Legislature, LB 1100,
will be finished as well, he said.
Those projects were OK’d in the
1998 legislative session in which $5.5
million was allotted to renovate build
ings on all four NU campuses in the
next 10 years. The university will pro
vide matching funds to supplement
the state’s contribution.
For example, both Lyman and
Bancroft halls will be knocked down
to make way for a new building.
In presentations to groups at UNL,
Benson said people have been most
responsive to the idea of parking
structures. People also like the idea of
an advanced shuttle system.
However, in the same way, some
have expressed concern that all the
new construction will take away park
ing spots the garages won’t replace,
Benson said.
Unlike the most recent plans, no
controversial items appeared on the
1991 plans, Benson said.
On the new plans, the vacant
Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity house
will be demolished and not rebuilt.
Also, the Alpha Chi Omega
Sorority house will be moved to 16th
and R streets, replacing the small
plaza east of the Wick Alumni Center.
More than half of the 106 sorority
members plan to be present at
Saturday’s meeting.
The sorority’s attorney, Mark
Hunzeker, will present some pro
posed changes to the plan at the meet
ing.
Alpha Chi Omega members were
mostly concerned the university
would go ahead with its master plan
and not listen to the sorority’s con
cerns, Hunzeker said.
A proposed amendment would
change that, he said, by giving the
members more say in the process of
looking for possible locations for a
new house and determining a timeline
for its construction.
The agreement will be made
before Aug. 1, 1999. Hunzeker said if
an agreement isn’t made, the Alpha
Chi Omega house would stay put.
“We’re going to be (at the meet
ing) in support of the agreement,”
Hunzeker said.
Though sorority members origi
nally were upset about the proposed
displacement of their home, many are
now starting to accept the idea.
“I think everybody has had a
chance to digest it,” Hunzeker said.
“The (proposed) change in language
is pretty significant.”
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