Maintaining a sense of community and sustainability as Livingston campus is further developed were top priorities of the Livingston Campus Council at its Monday night meeting.
“On Livingston, it’s not crazy and hectic,” said Yousef Saleh, a School of Arts and Sciences junior of what attracts him to the campus. “It’s kind of secluded so it’s intimate.”
Representatives from Live Work Learn Play and University Facilities and Capital Planning came to the meeting to discuss a vision for the future of the campus in terms of academics, recreation and retail, and to receive feedback from the community.
The University administration has committed to further developing the campus, said Frank Wong, executive director of University Facilities. More changes are in the works.
“There’s stuff on the boards for a new dining hall [and adding] 1,500 beds,” Wong said. “Those have definite timelines for construction, and then there’s stuff that’s ongoing.”
Livingston has already seen improvements to the Livingston Campus Center, walkways and has added a fountain.
“Beyond that, there’s a commitment to build a [new] school of business, a hotel conference center [and] new academic buildings,” Wong said. “So as you can see we have quite a few things lined up for Livingston campus.”
Live Work Learn and Play, a real estate planning and development consultancy, is also looking to plan for developing recreational facilities and attract new retail facilities. The company has worked with the University of Connecticut and Florida State, among others.
Council members brainstormed about things they would like to see, which included an accessible campus with a sense of community, a movie theater, an ice rink, a barbershop, a GNC and a Wawa.
“I love the idea of the movie theater,” said Crissy Dixon, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student. “A lot of people have been talking about it for years.”
But Arielle Alphonse, a School of Arts and Sciences junior, said a movie theater might attract a lot of students from other campuses, which could change the nature of the campus.
A basketball court that can convert into an ice rink would also get a lot of use, Dixon said. During nice weather outdoor facilities on Livingston already get a lot of use.
Lisa Israelovitch, a vice president for Live Work Learn Play, has seen a lot of common themes relating to accessibility, affordability and community from meeting with members of the Livingston community.
“One common theme that’s come up in pretty much all our discussions across faculty and student lines is the concept of environment and recreation and sustainability, and having that really permeate the campus in a lot of different ways on Livingston,” said Richard Martz, project manager for Live Work Learn Play.
The company and the University will look into different ways to develop recreational spaces and amenities in outdoor spaces that interact with the natural environment, he said. The company will also apply sustainability and respect for the environment to developing a plan for what businesses to try to attract.
“It’s definitely the wave of the future, and there’s a huge opportunity on Livingston to really make a very focused attempt to have as many parts of the campus reflect that as you can,” Martz said.
The company expects to present an initial mixed-use planning study in three months, Israelovitch said.
“But really, the report is a framework for planning and then would be translated toward fiscal master plans [and] into implementation plans as well,” she said.
University Facilities and the company met with a wide range of stakeholders on campus from the president and senior leadership on down, Wong said.
“But the president made clear that this is a plan for students, so we really wanted to reach out to students in different organizations,” he said.
The timeframe for improvements for the campus is ongoing, Wong said.
“Money plays the key factor [in developing Livingston],” Israelovitch said. “Our job is not just to provide people with the uses people want, but to actually make sure there’s business viability behind these uses.”
The campus is home to many first-year students, but the University is seeking to increase its diversity and academic focus.
“My biggest concern with the future of Livingston is the fact that it will be a professional academic feel, so I’m worried about undergraduates,” Council President Winiris De Moya said. “That should be looked into.”
Plans include making the campus home to the Rutgers Business School, School of Education and School of Social Work, Israelovitch said.
“I like the fact that [Livingston] is … a mostly freshman-oriented campus,” Dixon said.
The new apartment building could bring more upperclassmen to the campus, but she said she hopes the tight knit feel of Livingston can be preserved.
“It’s a nice environment to have friendly faces around instead of seniors hanging around who aren’t all interested in making friends as much as they are in graduating,” Dixon said.
De Moya, a Rutgers College senior, said it is important for the company to not only speak with student leader focus groups but to also reach out directly to Livingston residents.
“This particular meeting [was] productive in the sense that we really did tell them, ‘This is what we want, this is what we don’t want,’” De Moya said. “For example, [we want] a Wawa, not 7-Eleven, if that were to be [a choice].”
She said she is grateful for all of the amenities coming to Livingston as well as the influx of students coming to campus.
“I think that it’s fantastic, and I don’t think that we’ll lose that sense of community that [Livingston has],” De Moya said.
Campus developments lead to hopes for movie theater, Wawa
Published: Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, November 3, 2009
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