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Those lobbying for state funding to renovate one of the oldest buildings on the University of Minnesota campus are seeking student support to bring with them to the Capitol.
As part of its 2010 capital request, the University will ask the Minnesota Legislature to approve $23 million in state funding for the $34.5 million needed to renovate Folwell Hall. Faculty behind the proposal say student action is crucial in getting support at the Capitol.
“Students are the ones who are sitting in the classrooms,” said Daniel Brewer, chairman of the department of French and Italian, which is based in Folwell Hall . “We definitely want to give students as much of a voice as we can in this project.”
Brewer said the renovation directly impacts the quality of students’ education — last year, more than 12,000 University students enrolled in classes that met in Folwell Hall he said.
Kelly O’Brien, external relations coordinator for the College of Liberal Arts said the restoration would include physical upgrades to Folwell Hall. In addition to getting two new elevators, the building would also be more energy efficient in its heating and cooling methods, better use its available space, improve restroom access and provide an overall update to its mechanical infrastructure.
The building’s exterior was renovated in 2007.
Brewer estimated the renovation process could start as early as next summer and would take 12 to 18 months to complete. Classes would be temporarily relocated to various campus locations during the construction.
O’Brien said she hopes students will take an active role in getting Folwell funded. “They are the ones who will reap the great benefit of that remodel,” she said.
Spanish senior Danielle Smith said the biggest challenge in getting student support for the project lies in educating students about the issue and getting them to care enough to want to take action.
“The group that’s affected has the most power in changing it,” Smith said.
Each year, the Minnesota Student Association’s (MSA) legislative affairs committee hosts Student Lobby Day at the Capitol, at which University students gather to share their opinions with lawmakers. While this year’s event isn’t scheduled to take place until February, students are already preparing to present their case for remodeling Folwell Hall.
Paul Buchel, MSA’s legislative affairs committee chair, said as University state funding has been cut as a result of the economy, the Legislature’s priorities have shifted.
“We need to make sure that higher education, especially at the University of Minnesota, is a priority for the state Legislature and for the governor,” Buchel said.
The University asked the Legislature for funds to renovate Folwell Hall as part of last year’s bonding request, but the project was listed as a low priority and was not funded. This year, Brewer said Folwell is listed second only behind the University’s annual top priority — infrastructure maintenance and repair.
Also on the University’s wish list this year is funding for an American Indian learning resource center in Duluth, a physics and nanotechnology facility on the Twin Cities campus, research lab facility renovations and a new Itasca Biological Station.
As a part of the University of Minnesota Old Campus Historic District, Folwell is on the National Register of Historic Places, a program that recognizes landmarks worthy of preservation. Some other campus buildings in the historic district include Pillsbury, Nicholson and Burton Halls.
Before becoming home to the majority of foreign language departments at the University, Folwell housed a variety of University departments and organizations, including a German museum, the alumni magazine and the Minnesota Daily. Currently, about 130 faculty and staff work in the building and 800 undergraduate students’ majors are based in departments in Folwell.
Named for the first president of the University, William Watts Folwell, the hall was built in 1907 to replace Old Main, which burned in 1904. At the time of its construction, the project only cost about $400,000.
Serving the University of Minnesota Community since 1900
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Great idea, but...
“Students are the ones who are sitting in the classrooms,” said Daniel Brewer.
I think Folwell could definitely use the upgrade, but here's what Mr. Brewer probably didn't think about--students are going to be the ones sitting in classrooms while noisy and disruptive renovations occur. I had a class in Folwell while they were merely cleaning the outside of the building, and dirty water sprayed through an apparently leaky window at our class during a test. Our teacher threw a tantrum and demanded that our class be moved so we could focus (there was also a lot of noise happening outside the windows), but no one in Folwell seemed to be able to help us find a new classroom.
Long story short, I would support the plan 100% if Brewer and his amici could guarantee that it wouldn't disrupt classes.
Driven to Dissemble, Part 9999. The Folwell Shuffle Redux
Everyone should remember that in the past the Morrill Hall crowd threw Folwell under the bus, even after Pawlenty indicated that he would support the renovation, because they thought they could get the money instead for the Bell.
For background see:
The Folwell Hall Sellout Or, I Guess It is Not Unique and Essential... (March 5, 2008)
http://ptable.blogspot.com/2008/03/folwell-hall-sellout-or-i-guess-it-is...
"Meanwhile, the University Administration has pulled the rug out from under the Folwell renovation, even though the governor had already indicated his approval."
"The Administration's treatment of the Folwell renovation is a good example of the fact that you should pay more attention to what people do than to what they say."
"In Wellstonian: These people are not very good at walking the talk."
"Of course this would take leadership, vision, and a sense of priorities commensurate with our land grant mission."
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If the administration wants students, faculty, and staff to help lobby at the legislature, then I suggest they let these stakeholders have an actual say in what our priorities will be there.
Currently this input is a show:
"How is the priority list determined, Professor Luepker asked? At the end of the day, the President decides, Mr. Pfutzenreuter said. He decides from a list that comes from the vice presidents and deans." Senate Committee on Finance and Planning, September 20 (2009)
I certainly agree that students should lobby for Folwell money, but they should also be aware the project could (and should) have been completed a lot earlier if the Morrill Hall crowd had a better sense of priorities.
It is hard to come up with an example where the state legislature did not support a request that was demonstrably linked to our educational mission (Folwell) but cases of us being turned down abound when they appear to be unnecessary or untimely - the Bell.
Folwell Restoration Worthwhile; Save Music Ed Building Too
If done properly and with an eye toward preserving attributes such as the Gothic stylings, marbles floors and the like, the Folwell Hall project is worthwhile, even critical. One thing I've learned both from visiting (and attending) other universities in the US and abroad is that the quality of the physical campus is essential to the quality of life at a university and often part of the decision calculus for students with options.
In this regard, architectural decisions rendered over the past several decades have put the U badly behind the 8 ball, figuratively speaking. I've recently spent time talking to parents of elite students who elected to attend UW-Madison rather than the U and MN high school educators who increasingly find that the U is not even part of the discussion when their most elite students consider colleges (but UW-Madison is). There are a whole host of reasons why students prefer UW-Madison over the U, but one comment that has come up repeatedly is that the U campus is viewed as a "dump," an ugly, uninviting place filled with alienating modernist architecture and too little green space, a place that doesn't feel like a college campus but more like an industrial park sitting in the middle of an urban city.
When I attended the U in the mid-1990s, most of my cohort understood that Old Campus and the Mall were the most aesthetically-pleasing areas of campus and the place students preferred to spend their time. The medical and IT areas were seen as having a few quality old buildings, albeit not as beautiful as those on Old Campus, made a chaotic mess by poor decisions involving the addition of Modernist structures that were both ugly and gave those areas a congested feel. The West Bank, of course, was seen as a wasteland. I doubt that perceptions have changed much since then.
The Board of Regents at the time had voted to mothball various buildings on the Historic Knoll, a first step to demolition. Some of the buildings included were Jones Hall, Nicholson Hall, the Music Education Building (a small, gorgeous if somewhat dilapidated Richardson Romanesque structure on the far side of the Knoll that the good folks in the Administration and on the Board will demolish this November, if they haven't already), and Wesbrook Hall (a City Pages article from the time: http://www.citypages.com/1997-05-14/news/historic-misstep/ ). I remember in particular that the powers-that-be of that era declared the gorgeous Italianate Jones Hall as incapable of restoration.
It was restored. Shortly after the decision to mothball those Old Campus buildings, the U brought in Mark Yudof as president. Students and alumni should be thankful for his hire every time they walk across campus. The man did nothing less than save the best part of campus from the shortsightedness of the Board and the preceding administration. His first major act as president was to push for the restoration of Old Campus (although the Music Education Building was never restored). Jones Hall is the entry-point for would-be students.
Those reading this should also make a trip to the far side of the Knoll, by the connecting bridge to Wilkins and Sanford Halls, to take a look at the Music Education Building before they demolish it and lay a plot of sod (yes, there are no plans to put a new structure there, only to lay sod; you might say the Bruininks Administration lacks the vision of the Yudof Administration). The Music Education Building is the second-oldest building on campus. It was built in 1888 and originally served as the YMCA. Its Richardson Romanesque style (the same style as Pillsbury Hall and Minneapolis City Hall) was expensive and upper-crust even back in the day.
The administration says they couldn't find anything to use the building for and, like Jones Hall, its problems render restoration expensive to the point of it being infeasible. Somehow, Yale University had no problem finding uses for buildings like this when it spent hundreds of millions, perhaps even billions, of dollars restoring its historic campus. So make the trek while you can. Take a look at this unique piece of the U's past. You might conjure some uses for it, think up some functions or organizations that might properly fit within it. Then come back in a few weeks and enjoy the sod.
More on Folwell
First, to address notimpressed's legitimate concern about noise, Folwell will be closed for about a year to do the interior renovation.
If you want more info about the need and the campaign for Folwell see www.folwell.umn.edu.
Thanks!
Thanks for your response. Best wishes in the renovations!
Heritage Trust?
The Folwell Restoration web page is nice and should become an institutional page after the funding campaign has concluded. In fact, institutional web pages for each of the old East Bank buildings (pre-1950 perhaps) conspicuously placed, rather than the current spartan campus map pages, would be an inexpensive way to highlight the stronger aspects of the campus. There are some artistic pictures of the older buildings on Flickr. Perhaps the U could get students to submit photos for these pages, either allowing them to upload pictures freely or by holding a contest for the best photos.
The pages could also include historical photos from the archives, information on the history of the buildings, the story behind their namesakes, perhaps even short videos. It could serve as an education campaign. When UMAA President Margaret Carlson was confronted by an alum recently over the impending demolition of the Music Education Building, she didn't even know what the building was. Granted, it's a small, unused building on the far side of the knoll, but it is on the National Register of Historic Places. I'd expect the person in charge of selling the U to alumni to be aware of that at least.
The above is prelude for a larger issue: I wonder if it's time for the U dedicate a formal heritage trust to aid in the preservation of the older buildings on campus (again, perhaps pre-1950 or so). If such a trust currently exists, it is not conspicuously placed on the Giving page. There are 13 buildings currently on the National Register, soon to be 12 once the U's shortsighted leadership demolishes the Music Education Building and lays its sod. However, there are over 40 pre-1950 buildings and even those that seem to be in comparatively good condition have issues. For example, I am told that the Vincent Hall bathrooms have poor ventilation with its odors wafting into the hallways.
Such a trust would also serve to give the alumni greater choice in how they want their financial contributions spent. Yale, as I mentioned above, has done a terrific job breaking down hundreds of unique giving areas, many specific to its individual residential colleges and other buildings. The U is far behind the ball on this and might perform much better with its fundraising (fewer than 20% of the U's alumni gave last year) and general public support if it did. Yale's alumni have rallied behind the restoration, upgrades and ongoing maintenance. I think there are a number of U alums who would do the same.
To bring this back to the original subject -- the interior Folwell renovation -- it is important to maintain these buildings not only as beautiful, historic buildings but as usable space for students and faculty. If the interior is insufficient to current needs, it is all too easy for the U to take them off-line. This is a meritorious project.
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