For those of you who don’t know yet, Central European University is in the process of changing the configuration of the campus. The Campus Redevelopment Plan began in 2012 and now has reached its first phase. In November, the Nador 13 and Nador 15 buildings will undergo massive architectural changes which are meant to connect all CEU buildings and provide a unified complex. For the next two years, architects and construction workers will redesign and rebuild the two buildings, followed by similar actions for the rest of the campus.
The new campus, intended to be a blend of the old and the new, will provide students with flexible, multimedia classrooms, and incorporate sustainability plans. Also included is a complete redesign of the lecture halls and library with the aim to provide better offices for PhD students and professors. At the same time, the new campus will try to keep intact the feeling of a university as to not slip into looking like a building that could be mistaken for a shopping mall. For the project, CEU has hired the Irish architectural firm O’Donnell and Tuomey, as well as the renowned architect Pal Baross as the director of the Campus Redevelopment team.
To move forward with the aforementioned project means that all the offices in the Nador 13 and 15 must be relocated. In order to continue operating at the same level, administratively and educationally, CEU has tried to find solutions for the upcoming years. Three hundred thirty three people, comprised of staff, students and professors, must be moved, offices must change their locations, and a complete re-structuring of the physical space must take place, and because of this, some problems have arisen. As expected, such a big change in the life of any organization cannot go as smoothly as planned, due to unexpected problems or poor planning.
First and foremost, it is worth mentioning that CEU has decided to rent more space in the buildings unaffected by the construction work, such as Oktober 6 utca, no. 7. Moreover, the school has rented new buildings, like the one in Vigyazo Ferenc utca, no. 2. However, the questions concerning the rationale and logic behind moving the offices remain still unanswered and many departments on campus are not pleased with both the locations and the manner in which they were moved. Some offices had to pack all of their paperwork and change the day-to-day operations at least twice. Some of the issues are the disturbing smell of fresh paint in the new locations, difficulties the students have with locating new offices, and due to the the lack of advertisement, the inter-connectivity between offices has had to suffer. Some of the new offices are small and people who stayed next to each other and collaborated on a daily basis are now separated, which affects their work overall.
The administration has been talking about a November start-date for the actual construction work. But the question remains: how realistic is this plan? The first deadline, which wasOctober 15th, stated the Nador 13 and 15 buildings had to be completely emptied, was extended to October 25th, which is evidence that the move is not going as expected. Another element of concern is the fact that the actual construction company in charge of the works has not yet been announced. This again underlines the fact that a November start-date for this phase of the project is clearly not realistic. The CEU Weekly has tried to contact the administration and those in charge of the redevelopment plans, however no one has yet been able to comment on the issues we have raised. Having said that, we believe students ought to be informed about what is happening with the plans to redevelop the campus and we will continue to ask the necessary questions.
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