Financing of temporary modular units housing relocated offices

Crier\Tim Mannila

The new modular unit in front of Holy Cross Hall.

Abby Arsenault, Crier Staff

As plans for Saint Anselm’s new student center move forward, more and more of the various clubs and organizations it holds are moving to their new homes on campus.

Construction is estimated to take about fourteen to sixteen months, and will completely revitalize the Cushing student center. The new building will house the campus bookstore, the Meelia center, a new café, the ARC, and more. There will even be an indoor connection to the Stoutenburgh Gymnasium on the building’s east side.

Cushing holds a multitude of clubs and organizations in its walls, all of which have had to find new homes. While some organizations, like the mail center, share their new locations with preexisting campus buildings, others are moving to modular units to be placed on campus. The trailer like buildings will house the Academic Resource Center (ARC), Career Development Center, and Health Services.

The relocation of these offices may be confusing to some, but Dr. Harry Dumay, Senior VP for Finance and Chief Financial Officer for Saint Anselm, said that the project is necessary to meet the demands of a changing and growing campus.

“The student center is the living room of a campus,” Dumay said. “It is a place where students can play games and interact with each other. The center we have now is outdated, it doesn’t meet the needs of the school. We want to provide students with a living room that is more modern.”

The financing of these trailer like units were actually factored into the student center’s renovation budget. Dumay says that the costs of relocating and placing the units were considered when putting together the budget for this project.

“In planning for the renovation of the student center, we included in the ‘enabling phase’ all activities related to preparing for the renovation,” Dumay said. “Relative to the overall project budget, relocating service units into temporary modular units did not constitute a large fraction of the budget.”

Dumay said that the estimated cost for the new student center will be about sixteen and a half million dollars. Approximately two hundred fifty thousand of those dollars are to be used for the installation and upkeep of the modular units. The cost of powering the units electrically will simply be diverted from the powering costs of Cushing.

According to Dumay, with a project like this there are two types of costs, hard and soft. Hard costs pertain to actual construction, while soft costs have to do more with design fees, architectural fees, furniture, and relocation. The cost for the units therefore falls under relocation fees.

“We are a very frugal campus,” Dumay said. “We try to be cost conscious and reasonable with spending. The sixteen million dollars are necessary for the student center we want.”

The ceremonial ground breaking ceremony for the project took place on October 13. The units will stay on campus for the duration of the construction process, which is estimated to end in January of 2018. The displaced organizations will only move back once the entire project is finished.