News by Rhett Butler

Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous News | Send mail to The Voice Two-phase, two-story Student Commons coming quickly Green space will vanish with new building projects. -Rhett Butler, photo The scenery will be changing soon on campus when the new building projects proposed for the Student Commons, Bradley Hall and Mitchell Library begin. A new Student Commons project is in the works for Multnomah. The commons project will be in two phases, the first involving a 10,000-square-foot addition east toward Bradley Hall. It will be two stories high and will include a new 400-seat cafeteria. A larger executive dining room as well as a mezzanine with office space will be on the second floor. Multnomah president Dr. Dan Lockwood said, "The reason for the two-phase system is that construction on the first phase will take a year, and we still need the existing cafeteria during that time." Once the new section is completed, phase two will begin with a remodeling of the existing structure. Although preliminary drawings have been made for the project, the final design is not yet approved, according to Dr. Lockwood. "I'm fairly confident that the funding for phase one will allow us to start work in one to two years. It's designed to be the crown jewel of the campus. We really want to keep it as a place where students have all kinds of different spaces for different reasons." Once the Student Commons is complete, the next project on the boards is the renovation of Bradley Hall to create more class space. The building will expand to the north and south, adding six classrooms. Existing outside walkways will become enclosed hallways. Dr. Lockwood said, "Our architects say that [Bradley Hall is] a slab building and easy to add on to. The design still has to go through permit approval process but is on the map." The next development will happen at the same time as the Bradley Hall renovation. Three of the classrooms in the lower library (L108-L110) will be converted into library stack space to make room for the increasing number of library books. The stacks now are occupying space that would normally be used for studying. Funding for these building projects come from donations that are kept separate from the Multnomah Bible College and Biblical Seminary general fund; building projects are not paid for by student tuition. The budget is cast, by faith, a year-and-a-half in advance of the July 1 beginning of the fiscal year, and is composed of tuition payments, room and board, and giving. Only 65 percent of the cost of education is covered by tuition. More than 50 percent of the budget is salaries. Although tuition was up, giving was down by $130,000 this year, due in part to the slow economy. The annual standard of living increase for faculty/staff of 2.5 percent was delayed this year until January and then postponed again through the rest of the 2002-2003 fiscal year because of weak giving, which caused the budget deficit. Some staff positions have had to be cut, but other staff positions were vacated. Those staff members destined to be cut were moved to those vacated positions so that only one person has had to leave Multnomah thus far. Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous News | Top Of Page Send mail to The Voice| Journalism department website © 2003 The Voice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in written or electronic form without prior written consent from the journalism adviser of Multnomah Bible College. All rights reserved.