On Tuesday, Kansas State University held a town hall meeting as they begin the process of the university’s new master plan. It has been 12 years since the university last adopted a master plan.
Tuesday’s meeting was held at the K-State Alumni Association Building and saw students, faculty and alumni as they provided their input on the initial steps in the planning process.
“We’re trying to get as many voices together so they can engage from us on what they like about the plan and what can be improved on campus,” said Neal Kessler of SmithGroup.
Associate vice president of division of facilities Casey Lauer said that Tuesday’s meeting is the first of three this week.
“We’ll be in Salina tomorrow and in Olathe on Thursday,” he said. “We’ve set up a two week window for engagement at large.”
“Today has been centered heavily on student engagement,” he added.
Lauer also pointed out that the previous plan was a “great plan” but needed to be improved because it was “rigid and static.”
“When we began to face divestment on things like space and infrastructure, we could no longer rely on it,” he said.
Kessler says that the town halls are the university’s “understand phase” of the project.
“This is really the first phase of the project,” he said. “We’re trying to gather as much data and input as we can.”
“Basically, we’re trying to understand as much as we can about K-State,” he added.
Several students in attendance gave their thoughts on the meeting from Tuesday.
Brayden McPheeters, Wyatt Beard and Maddie Kerry are all fifth-year business students at K-State and shared their thoughts from the town hall.
“One of the things that was discussed was the dormitories,” said McPheeters. “One thing K-State is lacking is the living quarters, especially since we have new dining halls. I think that is something we’d all like to see improved.”
Beard said he was impressed by the turnout and said he learned a lot from it.
“We learned a lot about engaging people as business students,” he said.
Kerry spoke about preserving green spaces and historic buildings.
“I think it was good to hear from people about that,” she said.
The event on Tuesday is the beginning of a 12-18 month process in implementing the new plan. The goal of the town halls is to record data and receive feedback from the community.
