Rose AristeoReporter

The SDSU and Brookings communities will be more immersed by the beautification process going on campus wide, aiding in its overall productivity.

The campus master planning and design committee is now working to develop a policy that will allow sculptures to be constructed. Ideally this would allow for the formation and spread of sculptures throughout the campus.

Along with this development, the master planning and design committee, in correlation with Facilities and Services, as well as with many levels of SDSU’s academic community (the Foundation, the Administration and the Student Association to name a few), are working together to promote the aesthetics of the campus.

“Our committee doesn’t like to work in a vacuum,” Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Professor Christopher Schmit said pertaining to decision making. “We want to engage the rest of the academic community.”

Schmit said that the committee is made up of a variety of people. “We have a really good make up. This committee comments on these plans to make sure we are following the master plans of the University and that the elements work,” he said.

“The master planning and design committee is compiled of one student, several faculty members from a variety of colleges, a member from the Athletic Department, the director of the Student Union and the director of the Art Museum,” Schmit said.

Plans to steer SDSU’s current industrial look to an institutional look is underway. These plans include: extensive landscaping, construction of current and future walkways, as well as parking lots, the establishment of new buildings and the renovation of current ones.

Schmit said ultimately there will be a new design standard on campus.

Dean Kattelmann, assistant vice president of facilities and services stated that the main purpose of this construction is to make the campus look more appealing to the SDSU and Brookings community as a whole.

For designing these beautification projects, Facilities and Services hired Confluence, a professional consulting landscape firm in Sioux Falls. Confluence previously aided in the design of the Jackrabbit Green, a project that began in April, 2010, consisting of the green space between The Union, the Wellness Center and the Briggs library.

Kattelmann said funding for these projects is not limited to one source but rather a combination of sources. Many projects are donation-based, while other funding is made possible by using higher education facility funds as well as student tuition funds.

Senior electrical engineering major, Danny Andrawis of Brookings, said he felt as though the beautification of campus is a good thing but dislikes the fact that funding for such projects comes out of student tuition.

“I’m paying for it and I’m not going to get to see it,” Andrawis said. He will be graduating this May.

“Although there is contemplation of what future sculptures there will be, there has been talk of putting Weary Wil and Dirty Lil statues on the north side of The Union,” Schmit said.

Despite Andrawis’ dislike for using student funds, pertaining to the statues he said, “That would be sweet.”

Schmit said it is the President’s vision for SDSU to become a walking campus and because of the increased greenery it is slowly becoming a reality.

#1.1782061:3291373503.png:Beautification-2-BW-Ryan-Robinson.png:The Jackrabbit Village is one of many spaces on the SDSU campus included in the campus-wide beautification process. Pictured above is the unfinished fountain centered among the three new residence halls. Future plans will be to work on the campus green north of the Union.:Collegian Photo by Ryan Robinson