Mary Gates Hall (MGH) is set to undergo restructuring, which is expected to streamline advising services and bring diversity to the center of campus.

Ed Taylor, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, and Eric Godfrey, vice president and vice provost for Student Life, presented the MGH restructuring plan to the ASUW Board of Directors last week. The renovation will relocate several advising offices across campus into the building, thereby addressing logistical concerns with those resources being separated and centralizing academic services.

“Our students were accessing research opportunities in different spaces, in different parts of the campus,” Taylor said. “It makes sense for us to bring those efforts together.”

Sheila Edwards Lange, vice president and vice provost for Minority Affairs and Diversity, along with Taylor and Godfrey, initiated plans for these changes about four years ago.

In a report issued December 2005 by the Committee to Improve the UW Undergraduate Experience, which is comprised of several administrators of UW departments and facilities, one long-term goal listed was that: “The University must create and sustain a coordinated campus-wide guide to assist students in navigating the undergraduate experience. … The organization of a set of interactive student services designed for simplicity and access, and appealing to the full diversity of students, is the critical first step in this process. … An advising resource, for example, that allows students to explore interactively course and major opportunities and requirements would provide greater access to information.”

The offices that will be moved into the first floor of MGH include those for the Equal Opportunity Program, Early Identification Program, McNair Scholarship Program and the Lewis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, all of which are programs affiliated with the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity and most of which were traditionally located in Schmitz Hall. They will collocate with the Career Center and the offices of Academic Advising, CLUE/Academic Support, First Year Programs and the Experiential Learning Program, which currently operate in MGH.

The Computer Resource Center will be displaced from MGH as a result of this endeavor. However, there are discussions to move this service into Odegaard Library and perhaps repurpose some space in the Allen Library for computer and technology support, Taylor said.

There have been preliminary conversations regarding what resources will occupy the spaces in Schmitz Hall that will be made available after the relocations, but there are no concrete plans yet, Godfrey said. They may provide relief for other offices in the building, such as the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

Reconstruction will begin around June 2010, and the repurposing of MGH is tentatively scheduled to be completed by February 2011.

Unlike a number of other changes taking place in the operations of the UW, the repurposing of MGH is not driven by the budget crisis.

“At the time we started this conversation, we were experiencing a very strong and good budget, so the conversation was really more about values than about budget retrenchment,” Taylor said.

Upholding diversity is a value that has driven the conversation to a large extent.

“Students were accessing scholarships and scholarship information in different parts of campus, oftentimes separated by virtue of racial designation,” Taylor said. “We believe it’s time to actually bring that support and those services and resources together, and we believe that students are ready to engage with each other in very different ways.”

The cost of this endeavor is associated primarily with the renovation of the Computer Resource Center, the exact figures of which have not yet been finalized.

Apart from the Computer Resource Center, all other offices involved in the relocation process will be available in their current spaces during the renovation period.

Reach contributing writer Joanna Nolasco at news@dailyuw.com.