The University contracted Miron Construction Co. to convert Elmwood Commons into the new UW-Oshkosh Student Success Center Sept. 29.
The new Student Success Center will be a one-stop center for four offices providing critical student services: the Undergraduate Advising Resource Center (UARC), Career Services, the Center for Academic Resources (CAR) and the University Counseling Center.
These offices have all recently grown considerably and need more space. In some cases, services offered by one office are located in several different buildings around campus.
The 37,000-square-foot Elmwood Commons will be enlarged by 11,000 square feet so the new facility can comfortably provide all these student services.
With the existing staff and work load, the new facility will have “a little wiggle room,” according to Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Petra Roter.
“Every inch of that space has been programmed,”she said.
People who will move into the new building seem to be excited.
“We are bursting at the seams right now,” Joseph Abhold, director of the Counseling Center, said. “Some programs that are connected to the Counseling Center are not even located at the Counseling Center.”
The new building will allow the center’s many programs to be united in one facility for the first time: traditional counseling services, the AODA program, the rape crisis program, a group therapy space, teaching spaces and the biofeedback equipment.
“The new building will allow us to do some things we’re not able to do now,” Abhold said. “It will increase our capacity both in the number of students we can see and the number and kinds of outreach programs. I’m really happy. I’m very excited.”
Jan Norton, director of the Center for Academic Resources, feels the same way.
“We need more space; we need different kinds of space,” she said.
Currently tutors often work with students in the hallway, according to Norton. Tutors will also use any empty classrooms they can find.
Norton is happy her office will be moving to Elmwood Commons next fall.
“They were very thorough about asking us about what we need; what types of space we would need,” Norton said.
The new facility will include space for individual tutoring, small groups and large groups participating in Supplemental Instruction.
The student body has long appreciated the services provided by these offices. In 2002, the Oshkosh Student Association approved differential tuition collections of $1 million per year to fund the Student Compact, according to the Strategic Plan Update Annual Report. Norton said that, when the CAR was created in 2005, it was funded entirely by differential tuition payments suggested and approved by OSA.
The offices benefiting directly from differential tuition, in addition to those already mentioned, include the Reading/Study Center, the Writing Center and the Mathematics Lab.
The budget for the Elmwood Commons remodeling and addition was established by the Division of State Facilities (DSF), a division of the State Department of Administration, was $7.5 million. Bidding documents were made available to potential bidders on Aug. 13, 2009.
On Sept. 13, 2009, the DFS opened the bids. Most were partial bids for either construction, electrical, plumbing, water or HVAC. Only two full bids were submitted. Miron Construction Co. won with a low bid of $5.26 million, well below the $6.32 million bid of Jos Schmitt & Sons Construction Co. Inc. of Sheboygan.
When contingency fees and other costs not included in Miron’s contract are included, the total cost of the remodeling and addition project comes to $6.2 million.
“This is a very competitive bidding environment,” Roter said. “We thought everything that was on the original program plan was going to cost us the $7.5 million. However, when the bids came in, it came in lower than that.”
When a project comes under bid like this one, Roter said, it is possible that the balance might be spent on add-ons. These are items Oshkosh wanted but that weren’t included in the specifications because the architects determined that these items would put the project over budget.
Any decision to use a portion of the $1.3 million balance of the project budget to include add-ons will be made jointly by the University, DSF and the UW System. Possible add-ons are limited to those construction or furnishing items proposed during the design phase but not included for cost reasons.
“If we don’t spend it, it goes back to the state,” Roter said.
In line with Oshkosh’s commitment to sustainability, the Elmwood Commons project has been designed according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.
These standards, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, are audited and verified by independent third parties to ensure environmentally sustainable construction.
Design and construction standards cover many aspects of sustainability, including sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. Projects gain points by including more sustainability elements in the building design.
Elmwood Commons is designed to the LEED gold level, the second highest level, just behind platinum.
“We know that these buildings will be around for many years,” Roter said. “And we want to make sure that we are good stewards of the resources we have.”
Be the first to comment on this article!