Students Adjust to Ole Miss' Growing Pains

A walk on the Ole Miss campus during any given weekday is sure to be filled with sounds of beeping vehicles, running engines, and workers shouting directions. Green fences dot the campus landscape and threaten to become a permanent fixture. With 33 major construction projects on the Ole Miss campus since 2015, students are learning to adapt to the changes that this growth brings.
Symptomatic of Ole Miss’s growing pains are the reduced parking spaces. Junior accountancy major and commuter Tamara Kalmykova drove to her first day of classes expecting to park in the lot behind the Manning Center.
“I discovered an unpleasant thing that the parking lot I used to park in is now closed and a tennis facility is being built there. Since I always have a very heavy load on my back, I was upset that now I’ll need to park somewhere else and walk all the way to my class.”
The tennis facility is just one of the many construction projects currently underway. Other major projects affecting students are the renovation of the Student Union, the Johnson Commons East renovation, and the new Science Center.
According to the University of Mississippi’s Campus Master Plan, the $100 million Science Center will be located on the site of the obsolete Heating and Power Plants south of Shoemaker Hall.
“In addition to accommodating the growing space needs in this area, the new Science Center will serve as a gateway along the Walk of Champions,” the report reads.
Completion of the center is set for August 2018. In the meantime, students must find alternative driving routes around Science Row as the All-American Drive and University Avenue intersection is closed to traffic.
Similarly, the Johnson Commons East building is undergoing renovations to its interior and exterior facades which is due to be complete by May 2017. The upper level will continue to be used for banquet and large meeting spaces and the lower level will house the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. While the construction surrounding this building does not block students’ driving routes nor take their parking spaces, it is another reminder in a central section of campus of the seemingly constant state of construction.
As this tweet by Biochemistry major Jake Thrasher highlights, 1848 may not be the University’s founding date, but its perpetual construction start date:

The University of Construction@OleMissRebels pic.twitter.com/h6OhTTZU8V

— Jake Thrasher (@JakeGThrasher) February 15, 2017

But no construction has had more impact than the $50 million expansion and renovation of the Student Union. Not only is the heart of campus surrounded by beeping machines and green fences, but with its closure, gone are the offices, services and fast food the Union used to provide.

Students who are used to running into the Union for a bite to eat are forced to find other options like the Chick-Fil-A truck or P.O.D. mobile beside the Johnson Commons renovation.
Besides more limited dining options, students are realizing other unexpected adjustments of the Union’s construction–like finding Scantrons. Now that the bookstore as well as the offices in the Union that used to provide scantrons have moved, mechanical engineering student Bryce Johnson said that he had to scramble last minute before his test to find out where he could get one. “The vending machine in the library helped,” he said.
While the Union’s renovation is not slated for completion until May 2019, the building will reopen this coming fall semester with a food court, a McAlister’s Deli and the Union Ballroom. The final project is to include a larger dining area, new student government offices and added conference space.
Until then, students are adjusting to the growing pains. As Johnson said, “With the Union being closed, it feels like the students are more on their own, fending for ourselves without a central location to seek assistance or comraderie.”

 
Hover over green bar to see percentage of project complete as of February 2017. The red bar reveals the project’s anticipated completion date. 
Story contributed by Ariyl Onstott (ariylceleste@outlook.com).