Where is the love for CAS?

USD should consider renovating their largest college’s facilities ASAP

Spencer Bispham / Asst. Opinion Editor / The USD Vista

In case you haven’t visited the new Knauss Center for Business Education, you should make time to see it as soon as possible. It’s a beautiful facility with a $50+ million price tag, and it’s open to all students. There’s also air conditioning, a Mediterranean cafe called “Olivas,” and more study rooms than you can count.

With all of those bells and whistles, it’s hard not to feel neglected as a student in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS).  As the largest college at the university with 3,600 students (more than twice the size of the business school), it sure would be nice to have a shiny, new facility that catered to our needs.

For instance, the Ethnic Studies Department is located on the second floor of Maher Hall. It sits to the left of the main foyer at the edge of a dimly-lit hallway, with the “Department of Ethnic Studies” paint slowly fading beside the door. Inside is a collage of beiges constituting the carpet, furniture and walls. The building was originally constructed in 1954, and though the technology in most rooms has been updated, the original structure remains.

Across the Plaza de San Diego is another example of graceful aging: Saints Tekakwitha and Serra Hall (Saints). This building is not only home to a wide range of CAS courses, but it also houses the International Center, Counseling Center, the Disability and Learning Difference Resource Center and the Humanities Center. The latter is probably the closest thing we humanities students have to a centralized hub, despite the courses for our majors being spread throughout the rest of campus.

An exception to CAS’ outdated facilities is the Belanich Engineering Center, which is hidden underneath Guadalupe Hall. The first floor definitely underwent some renovations — glass doors, computer lab, the whole works. Its classrooms are devoted entirely to engineering courses. When it comes to the second and third stories of the building, though, they are in similar physical condition to Maher and Saints. Curiously, these two floors also host a variety of non-engineering classes, many of which fall within other areas of CAS. Even within a building supposedly dedicated to engineering, there are still areas that do not serve this purpose and would benefit from renovation.

The inconsistency of these CAS facilities is by no means a put-down to the new Center for Business Education. Jealousy notwithstanding, it’s an incredible building that will be cherished and renowned on this campus for years to come. It was also arguably well-deserved, as the old business school building was similar to much of the CAS facilities in its current age. This begs the question: when will CAS buildings get an upgrade like the School of Business?

For the answer to that question, we must turn to the university’s current outline for campus maintenance: the Renaissance Plan. According to their website, the plan is designed to address deferred maintenance projects in some of the older buildings and add new construction projects when appropriate. Since 2017, it has resulted in the restoration of the Founders and Camino residential halls, the new Center for Business Education, the Learning Commons and other buildings as well. It was also responsible for renovating the bottom floor of the Belanich, fixing the pipes at Copley Library and replacing the “original systems” in Camino, Founders, Sacred Heart, and Maher Hall(s). While there is no explicit timeline for the expansion of CAS mentioned, the recent success of the Renaissance Plan among a myriad of other projects suggests it’s not out of the question.

Assistant Vice President for Facilities Management, Andre Hutchinson, explained that plans for future renovation are being discussed.

“It is very early in the process to begin thinking about USD’s next major phase of capital construction,” Hutchinson said. “The buildings that are being considered for future deferred maintenance and other capital improvements include Maher Hall, Saints Hall, and Warren Hall. As all of these buildings are occupied and/or currently in use, the planning for work of this magnitude typically takes several years before the actual work takes place, and then the work itself will likely be phased over a multi-year schedule.”

Just like with the Knauss Center for Business Education, following through on these renovations would benefit more than just CAS students. Especially in Maher, the countless number of first-years who live and go to classes in the building would find the renovation of these spaces a welcome addition. It might even draw prospective students to our social science/humanities programs: tenants of the liberal-arts curriculum here at USD.

It’s important that we uplift all of the USD community together. We’re already the No. 1 most beautiful campus in the nation, with a business school that ranks in the top 50 in the country for both graduate and MBA programs. The Knauss School of Business deserves its flowers, and so do the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Law and other buildings here on campus.

We should all be excited about where we pay to live, work and learn; that excitement should be reflected in the visual quality of these spaces as well. For those of us enrolled in CAS, hopefully that will mean renovations for more of our facilities sometime in the near future.