Major changes to campus in store for returning students

KALAMAZOO—It will be a different landscape when Western Michigan University students come back for the fall semester.

"When students return...they will certainly experience a few significant changes to the campus footprint," says Peter Strazdas, associate vice president for facilities management.

Numerous changes

• Students who used to drive up West Michigan Avenue in front of the Bernhard Center and continue around the back of the Seibert Administration Building will now be faced with a dead-end street. They will have to turn around at Sangren Hall.

• The large parking lot on Knollwood Avenue across the street from phase one of the Western View Apartments is now closed for construction of phase two of the apartment project. Additional parking has been created to make up for the loss of parking spaces near Sindecuse Health Center, Schneider Hall and Rood Hall.

• The bus depot has moved from the west side of Rood Hall to the north side of Rood Hall on Wilbur Street, making bus pickup and dropoff closer to the center of campus.

• Students will also notice the completion of the new Sangren Hall, the mall on West Michigan Avenue by Sangren Hall and expansion of the Lee Honors College. The old Sangren Hall building is now closed and will be demolished during the fall semester. A new north parking lot at the site will be constructed in 2013.