At the movies: Crazy Heart
Last-second
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T he Inde pendent Weekly Student Ne wspa per of Framingham State College Since 1932
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78 l number 16
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Hemenway renovations, construction postponed to 2015
By Roya Bahrami
Assistant News Editor
Kelsey Loverude/The Gatepost
Meghan Earle and Tyler Duay enjoy the sunset from the College Center.
Chiller repairs stalled until 2015 By Shaeleen Perrault Staff Writer The chiller unit outside the Hemenway Hall Annex is broken and Dr. Dale Hamel, senior vice president of administration, finance and technology, does not anticipate FSC having the funds to fix it until 2015. The chiller unit was installed when the Hemenway Hall Annex was built in 1974, according to Warren Fairbanks, director of facilities and capital planning, and provides air conditioning to the building. Fairbanks said, “The chiller in Hemenway Annex has been a problem for a number of years. In the spring of 2008, we could not get it to run because of a failed pump. We rebuilt the pump, and in mid-July of 2008, the chiller was operational. It ran until mid-September of
2008 and then failed again. It has not been operational since that time.” Hamel explained that fixing the chiller unit does not simply mean buying a new one. Part of the requirement for fixing it will be to upgrade the electrical system of Hemenway Hall. Hamel added that merely to repair the unit would not be an option because it is “way beyond its useful life.” According to Hamel, the expected cost to fix the chiller unit is over $3 million dollars. He broke down the cost as follows: $200,000 for the structure, $1 million for the cooling plant, $200,000 for air handling, $200,000 for piping, $400,000 for electrical work, $400,000 for other costs and indirect costs, including contingency reserves, in the amount of $600,000. Administrators have pursued
many ways to fund this project, but have not been successful. “Unfortunately, because of the economic status, the state has reduced planned spending,” Hamel said. The plan now is to include the chiller replacement in the larger Hemenway Hall construction project, which is expected to cost approximately $50 million dollars. The chiller project will be one of the first phases of the renovation. The lack of air conditioning in the Hemenway Hall Annex is causing anxiety among faculty members as the summer months approach because computers and summer school students in labs will endure the heat without air conditioning. Dr. Kristin Chon, chair of the physics and earth sciences department, explained that al-
Chemistry majors Erica Engelson and Steven Syria are among the many FSC science majors who have experienced less-than-desirable conditions during their labs in Hemenway Hall and Annex. A lack of space, equipment and organization in the labs has cost important class time while professors fixed malfunctioning equipment or searched for materials during their chemistry labs. Engelson said, “I took Instrumental Analysis [last] semester and my professor had to fix a couple of the instruments - we delayed a
couple of our labs because of it. Then, we had to make up all the labs during one lab period. It was kind of a hassle.” Syria said, “When I was taking Inorganic [Chemistry], my lab professor had trouble trying to find the things that he needed.” Though plans to renovate science facilities in Hemenway have been in the works for several years, construction has been postponed until 2015 due to the state’s current fiscal condition. According to Dr. Dale Hamel, senior vice president of administration, finance and technology, the -Continued on page 5
We at The Gatepost would like to offer our most sincere condolences to the family, colleagues and friends of Dr. Doug Bloomquist, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, who passed away Thursday morning.
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My FSC love
Lobbying for labs
Men’s lax is back
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