UTA Campus Master Plan: John Hall, VP Administration and Campus Operations; 5.30pm Monday, 5 March
Mark your calendars for 5.30-7.00pm, Monday, 5 March, University Hall 532! SPA presents John Hall, Vice President for Administration and Campus Operations, for a presentation of the status of the UT Arlington Campus Master Plan. Mr. Hall is custodian of the master plan and has been working closely with President Spaniolo to enhance our physical facilities and environment, and with the City of Arlington to integrate the University with the surrounding community.
This is an open meeting, so please feel free to invite your friends or anyone else you know who might be interested. We’ll provide a little something on which to nosh beginning at 5.30pm; Mr. Hall will begin his presentation at 6pm.
I was not able to attend this meeting. Anyone care to comment on the campus mater plan?
I thought that it was an interesting presentation more for what wasn’t said than what was. I was very pleased to see an emphasis on design standards and a demonstrated commitment to increasing the amount of campus green space.
Unfortunately, while the plan recognizes the importance of the University to the Arlington community (especially the downtown area), I was a bit surprised (and dismayed) that no stronger statement was made regarding UTA’s responsibility for motivating significant and connecting development along its northern border. Although John Hall indicated that a final decision had not yet been made, the siting of the proposed events center on the southern flank of the campus is a simplistic solution to a complex, synergistic problem. Locating the events center between downtown and the University more constructively addresses a number of important problems both for UTA and the city (e.g. transportation, economies of agglomeration, shared parking, …).
I was also miffed to hear no overtly green proposals for building design and/or renovation. Moreover, there weren’t any provisions for weaning the University from the automobile. Closing internal streets to create pedestrian-friendly environments is all well and good, but the plan fails to address the need to develop connective transit with the surrounding region.รถ Blithely citing the shuttle link to the TRE’s Centre Port station and claiming Metroplex-wide “connectivity” is facile and misleading. Where is a proposal for a robust, University-sponsored transit solution to deliver automotive commuters to/from the campus efficiently? Now *that’s* a vision.
Lastly (but certainly not leastly), the plan should explicitly champion green building guidelines and require that all future (re)development conform to high standards of sustainability. UTA is in an enviable position, located in the middle of a sprawling metropolitan area, to lead by example. I would suggest that politicians in Austin would be more likely to buy into a master plan that positions UTA, the fastest growing of the University of Texas System schools, not only as an academic leader, but also as a recognized leader in university-community cooperation and sustainable development.
Kent this is a great critique. How about sharing your answer with the student paper?
Kent, I agree with you on the issue of “greening” the campus. UTA has an opportunity here to set an example for the rest of the University of Texas system by pursuing an aggressive green policy. It’s discouraging to see the administration ignoring this opportunity. I hope that “the powers that be” are, in fact, planning to develop UTA as an environmentally-responsible campus (not just with pedestrian walks, but with green buildings, etc.), and that we simply didn’t have time to hear about it during the presentation Monday evening.