Renovations

MAR. 12, 2013 — Update: On Monday, March 11th, IMSA took its first steps in the project to renovate the halls in the summer of 2014. The Capital Development Board (CDB) had its first official meeting with STR Partners, who are the Architect/Engineer firm chosen to lead the renovation. STR Partners is starting to analyze the school in order to determine how much renovating must be done.  The CDB will be in charge of establishing a contract with the firm and managing the project from start to finish. More information to come as future meetings are held. 

Instead of writing this article, as any responsible Acronym writer would have done, I spent my midday on Friday in the IRC eating delicious food, looking at gorgeous artwork, and listening to beautiful music. At first, I almost regretted not working on this, but then I ate a dulce de leche cupcake and knew that I had made the right choice.  As I happily chewed on the “broken glass” used as decoration on top, I glanced around the library. In one corner, students sat enthralled as someone played piano. In other, they paged through altered books, and in a third, they chattered about chainmail creations displayed in a glass case. I couldn’t help but think of what it would be like if IMSA didn’t have Intersession.

As much as I wish it were, getting rid of Intersession isn’t some fantasy or ridiculous notion. There’s a large chance that we won’t have Intersession next year, that spring break will be shortened, and that the entire school year might end a couple weeks early.  In the summer of 2014, after this year’s juniors have graduated, IMSA has decided to renovate its seven halls.

While there are obvious benefits to spending time improving the living conditions of future students, it’s obvious that this current plan isn’t very fair to the students who will attend IMSA in the 2013-2014 year. Spring Break is a necessary time away from school, and as a junior, I don’t know how I would cope if it was shortened this year. Intersession week is arguably the best week spent at school in the year, along with being one of those fantastic learning opportunities that IMSA is famed for providing. If it turns out to be removed from the academic calendar, I can’t imagine anyone looking forward to coming back to school after weeks of winter break and going straight back to the work and toil that go into IMSA classes.

Unfortunately, the plan to renovate half the halls in the summer of 2013 and half in the summer of 2014 is inconceivable. Although it would allow for us to have the same school year that we have always enjoyed, administration needed a full eighteen months to plan for the renovation itself, making it impossible for it to be carried out in this summer. And so, there doesn’t seem to be a solution to this problem besides the plan that has already been mentioned above.

In the end, I am forced to agree that the proposed timing for the renovation is the best plan, though it interferes with our 2013-2014 school year quite a bit. We will have to grin and bear it so that the students of the Class of 2015 and afterwards can enjoy warm showers, more insulated windows, and better dorm living in general.

Editor’s note: You can read more about the changes to the upcoming academic years at the interview conducted with Richard Busby, who is coordinating the hall renovations.