In a pending project proposal, Brockway would be renovated to become an integrated center for care for Hazen to move into, leaving Harrison as the only dining hall on campus.
Recently retired SUNY Brockport vice president for administration and finance Jim Wall mentioned these proposed plans for Brockway during the university’s Budget Town Hall Meeting last month.
“The current plan for Brockway is to try to create an integrated center for care,” Wall said. “To renovate Brockway, BASC would move out of Brockway into another location. We would then look at moving out of Hazen and moving that into Brockway. That proposal is currently submitted to the construction fund, because it’s a priority.”
Wall says they feel like this would be one of their least disruptive projects to campus life, since the building hasn’t been utilized for a while now.
“It hasn’t been approved yet,” Wall said. “It was submitted as an idea to a consulting group that is working on our facilities master plan. What’s probably going to happen is we’re going to see the output of that facility master plan within the next couple weeks.”
This facility master plan is a long-range plan, involving decisions the college needs to make to their facilities. When it comes down to numbers, only one dining hall is necessary, according to Wall.
“It appears, given our enrollment forecast, that we can manage with one dining hall, in Harrison,” Wall said. “That gives us the opportunity to do something with Brockway. Brockway is a dining hall right now, so it would need to be renovated. One of the ideas was to move Hazen, and potentially some other functions, into there.”
Brockway’s location would be beneficial if it became an integrated center for care, since it’s centrally located on campus. However, this plan would likely result in the Hazen building’s demolition once they have moved out and into Brockway.
“Hazen is one of our oldest buildings and needs some significant renovations,” Wall said. “We would probably demolish Hazen and try to utilize that space; turn it into green space.”
While their plan for Brockway is still a priority, Wall believes the university is still a few weeks away from getting a more definitive answer from the state.
“We’re still waiting for the approval and what priority this would fall under,” Wall said. “Right now, the priority on the campus is to create incremental space for nursing, renovate Tuttle and there’s some other projects in place. The Brockway renovations are probably third or fourth on the list. We’re waiting for feedback from the state if funding could be provided for that.”
