ASUW has been discussing plans for expansion and renovation of the Wyoming Union. The plans are intended to modernize the union and improve the lives of students on campus academically and socially.
Although nothing is official yet, there is a hopeful estimate of an additional 10,000 square feet onto the current building.
There was a previous plan by the Union Visioning Committee to renovate the Union within five to ten years, however, with the new budget cuts the plan was scrapped.
“They were told to cut the five to ten-year part and figure out how to move people around internally to deal with some of the stress and alleviate some of the current problems,” said Ben Wetzel, an ASUW Senator.
Wetzel has been working with Senator Joel Defebaugh since last November to try and continue with plans to renovate some of the Union. The architecture company ALM2S, out of Fort Collins, continued with very minor changes to the Union and those are the ones being considered now.
“The ultimate goal that we have is we want to take the plans that were already designed by ALM2S and we want to bring in an architecture firm that specifically does unions,” said Wetzel.
Wetzel said the meetings about the plans have been discussing how the Union should be the centerpiece of campus life where students go to hang out with friends and get involved on campus. Currently, many students only use the union as a passing point to get from one place to the next.
The plan would include additions onto and around the University store area, expansion onto the ballroom area, and then another small expansion into the alcove on the south side near Coe Library.
Each addition will include a basement, main floor, and a second floor. The focus will be on adding offices for the student leadership center to allow more growth for those groups.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations about what do we see, what’s this big picture of where we can take this?” Wetzel said.
One idea discussed was to integrate a full student run restaurant in with the Union Gardens to allow students to walk out with actual experience running restaurants.
“It’s these off-the-wall visions that our Union has never seen before that’s kind of our big hope,” Wetzel said.
Wetzel said that one of their big goals in expanding and renovating the current Union is to retain more students. The University is trying to recruit and keep more students and one of the ways to do that is to provide a sense of belonging to them..
Although none of the plans are official, ASUW has received permission from the Board of Trustees to begin an investigate process into solidifying them. Considering Wyoming’s budget cuts there is heavy focus on finding a new funding model which may include plans such as Private Public Partnering.
“It’s definitely a lot of unknowns, a lot of questions and a lot of up in the air at this point.” Wetzel said. “[The Union] is in dire need of an expansion.”
