Grace Hall residents expressed frustration after construction on the Lee and Penny Anderson Arena suddenly diverted walking paths to the dorm Tuesday morning.
Only the west door of Grace provides access to the rest of campus. The path leads around Brady Education Center and past Ireland Library before coming out next to the Schoenecker Center. Residents in the area are frustrated that they did not receive notice of these changes in additional construction and new path prior to the change, with one recent Fizz post comparing South Campus to “living in hell.”
“I was like, ‘It can’t be that bad,’ but it’s kind of like living on an island,” sophomore Grace resident Mira Schwanke said. “I called my parents like, ‘I’m on an island right now.’ This is crazy, it was on all four sides.”
St. Thomas announced the Anderson Arena on Jan. 17, 2023 after a $75 million donation from Lee and Penny Anderson. Construction is headed by Ryan Companies and Crawford Architects.
An email sent to Grace and Cretin Hall residents by Residence Life Tuesday afternoon apologized for the inconvenience and suddenness of the change but maintained that student safety was its main priority. However, students still have concerns.
Associate Dean of Students and Director of Residence Life Aaron Macke said that Residence Life was not made aware of the walking path changes until residents reached out to their office Tuesday morning. Plans to divert walking traffic were set to begin on March 1, in which case Macke says that Residence Life would have first communicated with students about the change. However, the circumstances of construction dictated that workers make the diversion earlier than expected.
“Not having water, power, different things that might impact the living situation, those are things that (Ryan Companies needs) to let us know ahead of, and they do, … but a change in walking path, those are things that happen based on whatever the conditions are on the ground with the construction,” Macke said. “It’s ideal that I do know, absolutely, and they know that, and they’re going to do their best on it.”
Sophomore Grace resident JJ Grosser started a petition on openPetition that calls for the university to refund commuter parking passes by $50 and to lower the cost of south campus living “significantly.” The petition currently has over 120 signatures.
“We feel pretty unsafe here … because, I mean, we don’t feel like any emergency vehicle can reach us. They haven’t really given us any accommodations just for us living here.” Grosser said.
Macke says while he is aware of student concerns and has been in touch with the students behind the petition, there are currently no plans to discount residence costs. There has been no precedent for this during past construction projects, and he says that the university considers construction “a part of the campus environment.”
Public Safety St. Paul Campus Manager Aaron Fimon said that the current plan for emergency medical services vehicles to access Grace Hall is via a drive aisle off of Goodrich Avenue that is already set as the standard response site for emergencies at Brady Education Center. Fimon said that emergency services’ response times will not be impacted by use of this new access point.
Other concerns raised were about the safety of the path and its accessibility.
Grosser said that many of his female friends feel unsafe taking the walking paths, in part because the paths are “not well lit at all.”
Fimon said he has heard concerns of suspicious people near the construction area after dusk and said that security presence on South Campus has been increased, with officers “very often making themselves well-known.”
Student complaints aren’t limited to after dark, either. Grosser cited the Residence Life student handbook, which states that quiet hours extend from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. every day. In spite of this, he said that construction typically begins at 7 a.m. each morning.
“If I went to Tommie North, but I made a ruckus in the morning, I’d be in trouble for that,” Grosser said. “But construction starts at 7 a.m. every single day during the school week.”
Sophomore Alaina Gerding said that she signed Grosser’s petition because she doesn’t receive a good quality of sleep because of construction noise. Both Gerding and Schwanke also said that cranes and other equipment have just recently started shaking the building,
“My roommate actually just said, ‘Yeah, once again, I was woken up to my bed like shaking,’” Gerding said.
While Gerding, Schwanke and Grosser all agree that pushing back the start time on work would minimize the impact on students’ lives, construction management has stated that its current work schedule is needed in order to complete the project on time, according to Macke.
“There’s some definite inconveniences — not safety things, but inconveniences — that are real,” Macke said. “I recognize them, I apologize that we have them, and they’re also something that’s part of what happens when you have construction on campus.”
Junior and Grace Hall resident adviser Diana Hernandez said that she has been woken up to the sounds of construction on some days and describes the situation as “a little chaotic,” but she has largely found ways to adjust to the new environment.
“It’s nothing I’m not new to over here on South Campus,” Hernandez said. “I feel like there’s always something going on with construction.”
The limited accessibility to Grace Hall has received attention even outside St. Thomas. Grosser said that WCCO-TV and other local news organizations had reached out to him about the story.
“It really feels like they’re really prioritizing profits over people, and I think they’re so focused on their Division I expansion that they’re forgetting who their customers are, and that’s us, the students,” Grosser said.
Kevin Lynch can be reached at lync1832@stthomas.edu.
Elaina Mankowski can be reached at mank2823@stthomas.edu.
Gwynnevere Vang can be reached at vang5129@stthomas.edu.