By Heather Fabritze
News Editor
In furtherance of Washington College’s five-year strategic plan, the administration is looking ahead to the College’s 250th anniversary in 2032 by creating a master plan that will establish institutional goals for the coming years.
At WC’s fall community forum on Oct. 28, select members of the senior staff shared the plan’s initial draft. In the early months of spring 2024 and over the summer, the College initiated a master planning process with the partner group NGA to review the physical spaces the campus currently boasts and to create a series of visionary documents in response.
Known as Vision 2032, the outline is not a script that WC will follow step-by-step. Rather, the plan’s goal is to show the WC community what our optimized future could look like.
President of the College Dr. Mike Sosulski, who led the forum, repeatedly emphasized that while the rough draft slides the administration presented at the forum look polished, the planned structures are not definite. If WC moves forward with the proposed buildings, architectural firms would design the blueprints.
NGA based their proposals on factors like fundraising and the direction that community members want or need the institution to take.
“The task that we gave the master planning firm is, first of all, listen to us as a community,” President Sosulski said. “Sit down with us, listen to who we are, what our goals are, what our mission is, and then help us envision what the physical campus can possibly look like as we move through the next decade to best serve our students and to best be a comfortable and successful place to work for all of us.”
Vice President for Marketing and Communications Brian Speer described another perspective the firm took, examining what existing campus spaces could use improvement.
“How are we using our residence halls?” Speer said. “How are we using our classrooms? Where do we have some deficiencies? Where can we see growth? That all will be a part of the campus master plan.”
Vision 2032 is focused on five major projects. The first is the Warehime School of Global Business, Economics, and Social Impact, which, according to previous Elm coverage, is set to start a multi-year development process. The firm looked at a few different locations, but the schematic they presented showed the school as the companion building to Cromwell Hall.
According to Speer, the lot for Cromwell was initially designed to host two buildings mirroring one another and the site’s plumbing, electrical, and infrastructure requirements are already in place.
NGA also had a conversation with the Department of Athletics about their needs, as the College is aiming to create a second athletics facility to accommodate the expansion of our athletics program.
Two blueprints were proposed: the first would be situated on the fields across from the Wayne Gilchrest Rail Trail, in addition to new competition fields. Speer describes this proposal as the idealized, larger option with a sustainable roof, walking trails, and easier access to the rail trail.
The secondary plan would be to build a smaller fieldhouse on campus, with renovations in Cain Gymnasium making up for the space.
Larrabee Arts Center is another facility that is not currently meeting WC’s needs, according to Speer. An updated version would combine fine arts and studio arts along with communications and media studies, seeing as there is significant overlap between the fields.
“It would remove the existing Larrabee structure in favor of a new structure that would really focus more attention from the public, because there might also be gallery space in there, in terms of another front door to the community to our campus,” Speer said.
The fourth project Speer presented was a sustainability hub that would sit on the edge of the Campus Green. Ideally, it would activate the space more than it currently is, including hosting concerts in front of the building.
Architects would add diagonal pathways that cut across the Green, making it easier to access Cromwell and also connecting William Smith Hall with the currently defunct main entrance.
“The sustainability hub, this is an example of understanding needs,” Speer said. “One of the things that we’re lacking are some of our lab spaces. This building could be used to create some additional lab spaces, especially wet labs, as well as serving as a hub for the sustainability director for the College and some other initiatives around sustainability.”
The need for the hub grew out of the College’s existing strategic plan, which emphasizes the necessity of environmental programs and research in the local area.
The final part of the master plan continues existing conversations surrounding the property at 800 High Street. Construction teams fully removed the old Dixon Valve plant, leaving only two buildings in its place.
The administration intends for the remaining YMCA structure to become a wellness center for students, and the Quonset hut, which is a type of building, will turn into the innovation hub. Other options for separate, new buildings include a retail space, new housing, senior residences, or townhomes.
“This project is off in the distance, and there’s a lot of opportunity there, but there’s also going to be a lot of community feedback on projects like this,” Speer said.
A secondary part of the master plan involves refurbishing the main campus gateway that stretches past Cullen Hall, the Quad, and Hodson Hall.
“If you go out and look at it, we’ve got those two brick walls and a whole lot of wires up there,” Speer said. “It doesn’t really have any sense of place for you as you come on campus. This is an idea of thinking about, how do we change that arrival experience?”
Speer and the other senior staff hope that the new main gate will have more of a visual impact for prospective students. Proposed fixes would include adding sidewalks to the side of Cullen, removing the dumpsters from Hodson to make the building more aesthetically appealing, removing the Quad dorms, and adding traffic calming measures on Washington Avenue.
The next step for the Vision 2032 projects is for the administration to receive the official documents for the master plan, which Speer said would likely be in the coming months.
Until then, President Sosulski and other administration members are working with Vice President for Advancement Susie Chase to provide the necessary foundation for their vision.
“Ninety-nine percent of what you see there could never be funded through our regular operating budget,” President Sosulski said. “That’s not the kind of budget that we have. That’s not what tuition and fees are for. We would need to use philanthropy to realize visions like that. As we contemplate those kinds of things, we need to design and execute a comprehensive fundraising campaign.”
Photo by Selena Francese.
Photo Caption: At the town hall, the Finance, Advancement, and Admissions offices also gave updates on their semesterly performances.