During Bob Waddles presentation of facility design and construction, I learned a few things about capital planning.  I was put to comfort a little about BGSUs spending in completing the master plan, in that the university is being responsible with its money.  Although we have the capability of borrowing tons of money, the university is not doing so.  I would very much not like to see what happened to the University of Cincinnati in stopping construction, happen to BGSU.  Not borrowing the money from banks does pose a challenge to capital planning in figuring out where the money will be coming from. 

 The challenge that I see affecting the master plan the most is the displacement of offices around campus during construction.  The biggest of these would be the administration and education buildings.  Where would all of the offices go?  I can see where it would be difficult navigating exactly where offices would be put during construction. 

 Some other challenges of the BGSU Master Plan are the thoughts about creating a gateway and making our campus more open and welcoming.  Waddle mentioned that Wooser Street is like the Great Wall of China and that the campus is beautiful once you get in, but it is rather unwelcoming from the outside.  Tearing down the administration building and opening up old campus would be a wonderful way to make campus more welcoming, but this is from Thurstin Street, not Wooster.  So how would the campus be more welcoming from Wooster Street? 

 Rewards of this process would be seeing all these various projects being done and seeing the end product of the master plan.  Although there are challenges along the way, the rewards of having a better functioning, more welcoming campus would be well worth the time and money.

 Another school that is currently working on a plan to improve its campus is the University of Dayton.  UD is working to expand the acreage of their campus and are taking large strides to make their campus more beautiful and accessible than ever.  Much like the large strides BGSU is taking to open up the campus and build new buildings. 

Check out the website for UD’s Master Plan.