Submitted on behalf of Provost Marisa Kelly:
Plans for uniting the physical therapy program on South Hill are progressing on schedule, and I wanted to provide the campus community with an update on how that move will prompt some additional moves by other programs and operations.
As you may remember from our June announcement, we were able to take advantage of the renovation work already underway in Hill Center to include construction of the cadaver and movement analysis laboratories in that project. We are well into the construction design phase for those labs, which will be used not only by our physical therapy students and faculty, but also by other programs in the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance and elsewhere at the college.
As planned, students currently in the physical therapy program will remain in Rochester through the end of the summer of 2014, with the new facilities opening for the 2014–15 academic year.
Additional classrooms and offices for physical therapy will be created in the Center for Health Sciences, in the spaces currently occupied by the Gerontology Institute and Office of International Programs. Those programs will be relocated to the second floor of Job Hall, accessible directly from the academic quad, in areas now housing staff in Information Technology Services.
Those staff members will, in turn, move to the 14th floor of the East Tower, currently known as the TC Lounge. This location will be renovated into offices, similar to the space occupied on the 14th floor of the West Tower by the financial services and budget offices. The ITS customer service operations, such as the Help Desk, will remain on the first floor of Job Hall.
During mid-terms time in October, the Library and Dining Services teamed up to open the Library Café on the second floor, offering early morning and late night beverages and treats. This pilot program has been deemed a success, and when the TC Lounge closes, the possibility of reopening the Library Café in order to provide an additional place for students to snack and study will be explored.
We expect to begin the necessary renovation work for all of these moves over the winter break, in order to create the least disruption to the affected programs and services. We will continue to keep the campus community updated on the progress of this work.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20131105125544959