After about four years of planning the conversion of Webster Hall into a Special Collections library, administrators say the project is too far along for them to change their plans.
On Tuesday night, the Student Assembly passed a resolution that calls for the administration to either halt the project or make plans to construct a building similar in size to Webster to hold programming events.
But because the College has already committed itself to the project, it seems very unlikely that the Assembly's first demand will be met.
Director of Facilities Planning Gordie DeWitt said the plan was conceived about four years ago and the College has been working on the conversion since then.
"We've done two levels of planning," DeWitt said "It's a long way down the planning stages at this point."
Webster has been a home for many speakers and concerts over the last several years. It is a unique space on campus because it is can seat about 800 students and is fairly easy to book.
Both Leede Arena and Spaulding Auditorium are difficult to hold social events in because sports teams and The Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts have priority almost every day.
Assembly President Rukmini Sichitiu '95 said she thinks that showing support for a new building may be a more productive way to maintain that kind of social space on campus. She said she thinks actually saving Webster would be unlikely.
"Personally, I feel that a greater success would be if we push for a new building of comparable size and better quality," Sichitiu said.
She said The Hop has already submitted a proposal to the administration asking for an auditorium the size of Webster.
Sichitiu said she hopes the Assembly could work with The Hop to persuade the Administration to create a new auditorium.
Deputy Provost Bruce Pipes suggested the Assembly use the information it gathers to draw up a proposal for the construction of a new auditorium that it could submit to the College.
"The idea is to come up with a proposal for the kind of space needed," Pipes said. "We can look at the proposal and then decide. If the proposal is developed and it's judged of a high priority, we would look for the opportunity to fulfill it."
Dean of the College Lee Pelton said it is important for students to let the administration know that they have a problem with losing Webster.
"I think students have identified a problem. I would encourage students always to make that known," he said.
"The College then has an obligation to work with students to define a resolution. The resolution may not be one that all students find desirable," he said.
Class of 1996 Vice President Tom Caputo said the Coalition of Class Officers is also working on its own information search to determine what the student need is for a place like Webster.
"We're going on a fact-finding mission," Caputo said.
When the administration began planning moving Special Collections, Pipes said Webster was the most cost-effective place to move it to.
He said they considered other possibilities, including underground stacks, but said all options were "inordinately expensive."
After exhausting those options, they decided converting Webster would be the least costly plan.
"The plans are quite far along," Pipes said. "The Trustees approved the schematic designs and the funding two years ago."
At the time the Webster conversion was planned, Webster was rarely used and the administration did not expect the students to have any problems with losing the social space, Pipes said.
"We knew we had other plans for Webster," Pipes said. "It went through a period in the late '80s when it wasn't used much at all."
And Pipes said the administration never made a secret of its plans to convert Webster.
"At the time there was no secret," he said. "At the time even student interest wasn't that great."
He said it did not occur to anyone to bring this decision to the Assembly because no one thought the students would care and that the programming needs fulfilled by Webster have arisen since the decision to convert it.
"In the late '80s or early '90s, somebody from student programming asked if it could be used for student programming," Pipes said.
"We said yes but told them we had plans for Webster."
The Webster conversion was scheduled for a time after the Collis Center would be open, Pipes said.
He said the administration assumed Collis would provide the space for student programming when Webster was no longer available. But Collis Common Ground can only fit about 350 students.
It has taken the College two years to raise $3.3 million of the $10 million needed for the project, according to Paul Sheff, director of major gifts.
"At this point we're a good ways away," Pipes said. "It may not be until June of '96. If it doesn't occur until then, that's going to be tight."
But June 1996 comes very close to the time when construction is planned to begin on the new Berry Library, and it cannot begin until Special Collections moves into Webster, Pipes said.
"There is a specific time," Pipes continued. "As that time gets closer, we get more nervous."
