Adams: Despite budget strains, construction will continue

Even when the University has been forced to reduce academic funding and completely eliminate 12 majors, University President Michael Adams said Thursday that construction on various projects around campus will continue.

Amidst cuts that look to be around 11 percent in the state of Georgia in 2010, Adams said in his Thursday cabinet meeting that he plans to go ahead with construction on Tate Center and Health Center expansions, a new dorm on East Campus and a parking deck that will be built on the intramural fields.

“We intend to do that because we think, first of all, it’s a very strong economic stimulus,” he said. “And secondly, we don’t have anything on the list that we think is frivolous.”

Adams has made it no secret that he favors increased tuition at the University, and various colleges around campus have already seen the effect of the budget crunch. All of the University’s schools have experienced some type of cuts, and the state may soon order unpaid time off for University faculty and staff.

So, what do students vote: new buildings and facilities, or a stay on construction and a feeding of money back into their education?

“It’s a tough call, but you’ve got to look out for the students,” said Lindsay Davies, a business major from Grayson.

“A new dorm is probably necessary, but a parking deck? Really? I know the parking system here is kind of a mess, but there are other more important things we could be spending the University’s money on rather than cutting funding for colleges.”

Tate Center construction is already underway, and that and health center expansion should be completed by the time fall classes start Adams said.

But construction on the intramural field parking deck has yet to start, and some students think it shouldn’t start at all.

“This is ridiculous,” said Ben Wright, a senior from Snellville. “I play soccer on the intramural fields all the time, and they’re crowded as is. And now they’re taking up even more of that space, while I have 9,000 people in my accounting classes?”

The University is staring down a 9 percent cut in state appropriations, but, at least for now, construction will continue.

Said Will Holloway, a junior from Cumming: “Man, it’s great that we’re getting new facilities, but there’s a time and a place. And this is neither.”

Photo Credit: Nick Passarello, The Red & Black