The current housing project on Shippensburg University’s campus is not the only change the campus has seen or will see in the near future.

Last year, the fountain in front of Old Main was renovated and although many students may not find the fountain significant, it is a crucial part of SU’s campus. It was a substantial, overdue project and was only a start to revamping the university’s appearance.

The current housing project is a three-phase project being completed thanks to SU Student Services, Inc. (SUSSI) and Campus Apartments.

The first phase is projected to be finished in December, allowing new suite-style apartment dormitories for a total of 924 students.

Phase 2 will begin immediately following the first and will result in knocking down Etter Health Center, Mowrey and Seavers to restore that side of campus, as well as create a new Wellness Center and honor’s college.The project will take about five years to complete and has an estimated total cost of $69.7 million.

The project is the largest change students are seeing, but there are many others in the plans as well.

According to Lance Bryson, associate vice president of Facilities Management and Planning, SU will replace the roofs of Horton Hall and Franklin Science Center within the next year or so. This project has an estimated total cost of $1.25 million between both buildings.

The next big projects on the list of renovations are replacing the central heat plant and centralizing the campus’ chilled water production. These two projects have a projected total cost of approximately $30 million. They are crucial projects for the university because they will significantly reduce the energy consumption costs and reduce carbon emissions.

The decentralization of the heat project is anticipated to be done in the summer of 2014. This is being done because the heating system at SU is becoming outdated. The old heating system is being replaced with a decentralized gas-fired system.

The chilled water centralizing project should be done in summer of 2015. This project includes a thermal energy storage (TES) tank, which improves energy conservation.

One last project coming in summer 2015 is to replace SU’s outdated infrastructure systems, the electrical distribution system and telecommunications distribution system.

These projects will add up to approximately $10 million, according to Bryson.
Within the next few years, SU students, faculty and administration will be experiencing a totally new, more environmentally friendly campus.

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