By EMILY PRESTWOOD
Ranger Reporter
The rich aroma, the satisfying taste, the energy rush, the addiction — it’s coming. Maybe. A coffee kiosk has been proposed as part of the Lynn Library construction project.
Bruce Cotgreave, physical plant director, said the first floor of Lynn Library will be remodeled into a student center that will include lots of seating and places to study.
Unofficial plans include quiet areas, small rooms designed for four to six students and plenty of opportunity for groups to collaborate, Cotgreave said.
“The library is the center of the campus,” he explained. “You want to group your students around the center.”
Ideas for the project have been proposed for about two years. “We are in what I call the programming stage,” Cotgreave said. “Nothing has been drawn up yet, but we are getting ready to start up on it.”
Before the first floor of the library can be repurposed as a student center, the second floor must be renovated. The office of Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, vice president of academic affairs, along with a conference room and the Center for Teaching and Learning will be moved to the second floor, Cotgreave said.
The project is part of a $98.3 million bond issue passed in 2007. Cotgreave said the first floor of the Lynn Library has a budget of $1.5 million and that Amarillo College President Paul Matney strongly supports the renovation.
“Dr. Matney pushed this project from the beginning,” Cotgreave said. “I think it is going to be a real asset to the college and something students will enjoy.”
According to Shawn Miner, a religion major, the bond issue money is being put to good use because it is going toward student improvement.
He said he definitely plans to use the facility once it is complete. “A few of my classmates would use it, but some of them would not. It depends on the situation,” Miner said.
Mark Hanna, the AC librarian, said, “The idea is to make it a student-centered floor. It is a high profile place already because you have to walk through the first floor to get anywhere in the building.”
The Lynn Library renovation is one of the final projects included in the bond issue passed in 2007. Although $1.5 million is budgeted for the first floor, Hanna said the project may be temporarily postponed if some of the budget money is used to help complete other renovation projects on campus.
Cotgreave said AC officials hope the first floor student center will be complete in 2014.
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