Phase II renovations set for f8112000

The primary changes that will occur in Phase II are a new communications center to be located where the Founders Hall gym is, new classrooms and offices for adjunct faculty members.

by Paul Moser sports editor

The last time the Founder's Hall Gymnasium was put to beneficial use, the Cavaliers captured yet another basketball title-the last one, in fact, from that gym. Since then, the Dixon Center has already been completed and has become the new home of the Cavaliers, who hope to capture their first championship in the building this year.

A lot of things change in a year. Now, the building which was home to so many basketball championships will undergo yet another facelift with the Phase II renovations.

It was one year ago this semester that the new smart classrooms and other improvements to the then Sacred Heart Hall were introduced to the students and faculty.

This fall semester, the renovations to the dining hall and certain computer labs were revealed. Plans are currently being dis- cussed right now for the next tummy tuck of Founder's Hall.

Among the new changes to the old gym are a brand new communications center chock full of fixings, new all purpose classrooms and offices for adjunct faculty members, expected to be completed by the fall of 2000.

According to Stephen Lightcap, vice president of finance, the new renovations, like the other ones, will be primarily funded through grants and fund raising.

Lightcap added that the plans are in the programming stages.

Lightcap said that the faculty are returning wish-list-requests, which are all collected and handed to an architect who will tell the college what they can and cannot build for the money they plan to raise.

The renovations and relocation of the communications center are due.

While sitting in a converted closet as an office, English/communications department chair, Dr. Jerome Zurek, said "the depart- ment and its students live in cramped squalor."

The English/communications department at Cabrini College is one of the fastest-growing majors at the school and has been looking for new facilities for a long time

"In order to offer the classes we want to offer, we need more space. When we're cramped, we can't offer the classes we want because the rooms we have are doing triple duty.'' said Zurek.

Zurek expressed interest in the new facilities for recruiting purposes as well. "If we don't move it will hurt recruitment. The current newsroom acts as a journalism classroom, student lounge and a graphic design classroom all in one."

LaSalle University, one of Cabrini's admitted competitors, recently constructed a new communications center as well a few years back.

In order to compete for students from around the area, this new communications center may prove beneficial.

In the communications part of the renovations alone there will be a new newsroom, graphic design classroom, graphic design studio, television studio, video control room, video editing room, video storage room, three radio studios, a radio supervisor's office, seminar room and a lounge area.

In the other rooms, after the phase II renovations are completed, there will be adjunct faculty offices and other regular classrooms.

Currently, not a tile has been lifted from the hallowed home of Cavalier basketball, but stay tuned, phase II is corning to a gymnasium near you.