In an email sent to all students, staff and faculty on March 17, President Ronald Crutcher outlined a number of initiatives that were presented to the Board of Trustees at their last meeting on February 21. The initiatives include an effort to improve career services and a renovation of Emerson and Chase that is expected to cost millions of dollars.
“The benefits of this work will come to fruition after I finish my term as president, but I will be watching closely and rooting for the college and all the members of this extraordinary place,” Crutcher wrote in the email.
The Student Government Association (SGA) has been involved in the planning of all of these, most notably the new plans for student dining. SGA Senator-at-large Michael Ratliff ’16 said the renovations will turn Emerson into a sort of luxury coffee shop, with new, more casual seating. There would be several food options, including a cafe that has been compared to Panera.
Ratliff also stressed that Emerson’s wood-paneled interior would be largely untouched.
Dining services is currently undecided about how the new setup would work with students’ dining plans; several alternatives have been discussed but no final decision has been made yet.
SGA Vice-president Floriane Borel ‘14 said that the plan is committed to improving the the current dining hall structures.
“The architectural sketches I’ve seen really demonstrate how much work has been put into this,” she said.
SGA has been less involved in the changes to career services, although an ad-hoc committee that addresses concerns related to career services exists.
The trustees voted on several other initiatives as well. They established a comprehensive fee of $58,254 for next year. The new fee includes tuition, room, board and student activities. In addition, six professors were given tenure: Tom Armstrong, Rachelle DeCoste, Talitha Espiritu, Scott Gelber, Jason Goodman and Karen McCormack.