Ithaca College commenced the Terrace Elevator Connector project, which involves construction at the Terraces Dining Hall, April 1. The college expects the project to be completed before Fall 2024, however, there is a possibility Terrace Dining Hall will be closed for a part of the semester if renovations are not finished by the expected timeline.

Reginald Briggs, senior director of Dining Services, said that while the goal is to have a substantial amount of the work in the dining hall done by August, there have been talks of alternative options, like a mobile kitchen. 

“I spent a lot of time trying to think of alternatives,” Briggs said. “We were all in agreement that the Campus Center dining hall doesn’t have the capacity to serve the whole student population for seven [to] eight weeks.”

In October 2023, the project, which is a part of the college’s master plan, was approved by The Town of Ithaca Planning Board. This is one of the goals of the Ithaca Forever Strategic Plan, a five-year plan aimed to address long-term institutional goals and make advancements to the college’s campus. 

Tim Downs, vice president of Finance and Administration and chief financial officer, said via email that the project costs $4 million to complete; the major costs of the project are the materials used and labor. Downs said the college has not taken any new debt to complete the renovation. 

The project includes a new elevator that will make six stops through the ground floor of the Terrace Dining Hall up to Terrace 1; an accessible walkway that will connect Baker Walkway and the Terrace Bridge level to the dining hall; and two all-gender bathrooms on the ground floor of the dining hall. The only accessible entrance to the dining hall is on the west side of the building. 

Construction officially started April 1 and certain areas inside and near the dining hall are restricted. In an Intercom post sent by Ernie McClatchie, associate vice president in the Office of Facilities, he said the Southeast stairwell of the dining hall will be closed and students living in Terraces will have to get their mail in the Towers Concourse mail lockers.

McClatchie said that even though some of the temporary changes, like where students can get mail and the closure of the Southeast stairwell entrance, might cause some frustrations, he wants to be able to get as much construction done from now to August so that the dining hall can be used during the 2024 academic year.

“There’s no doubt if this was a project that we knew that could be completed in two months, then we would wait [to start during] June–July, which is what we do with most of the construction around campus,” McClatchie said. “90% of the work we do is done when classes are out or if summer classes are here.” 

Jeffrey Golden, associate vice president of Auxiliary Services, said he has been working with McClatchie to ensure that dining and facilities are on the same page regarding the project’s timeline and how it will impact the dining hall’s operations. 

“The conversation has been a pretty well-developed one,” Golden said. “With a project like this, there’s always some uncertainty as it starts to unfold. So there’s a back and forth and a debate there. You can make an argument that … the first conversation about how the project would affect dining had to do with when we would start and when we would expect to end.”

Senior David Castro said he is concerned about how the rest of the dining areas would be impacted if the dining hall were to be closed for the Fall 2024 semester.

“It would be extremely scary because when I’ve been here on campus and they close the Terrace dining hall the day of a break … it’s insane,” Castro said. “In CC for lunch, it is already packed and crammed as it is. I think Towers would have to become more of a formal dining hall than it already is [if Terraces was closed].”

Plans and reasons for renovation

The campus’s topography has posed challenges for members of the college community because it was built on a slope. In 2021, 22% of students were registered with Student Accessibility Services (SAS). This percentage included students with physical disabilities along with students that have dietary restrictions, emotional support accommodations and testing accommodations.

McClatchie said students, faculty and staff have all expressed difficulties in accessing the dining hall over the years.

“This has been a concern for quite a few years, [which is] kind of one of the reasons why it was on the master plan, as a part of ADA improvements,” McClatchie said. “It’s interesting if you think about it: Terrace 5 is sort of an ADA and accessible Terrace; however, you can’t get to the main campus from there. You’d have to get to a car or vehicle and then drive around and come down. So I think [the Terrace renovation] really opens up the possibilities for accessibility.”

Terrace Dining Hall is one of the buildings that is ADA-compliant. In 2015, the Office of Civil Rights visited the college and cited 16 areas on campus that were not ADA compliant, including Egbert Hall/Campus Center and Peggy Ryan Williams Center.  Terrace Dining Hall was cited as ADA compliant. 

Jenny Pickett, assistant director in the Office of Residential Life and Student Conduct and Community Standards, said Terrace 1, which served as employee housing, will remain closed during the Fall 2024 semester so that the renovations can be done before students can use it again. Terrace 1 residents have now been moved to Boothroyd Hall.

“One of the things we’re focusing on in the project is that connector piece over to Terrace 1 and the dining hall and then the work where it’s attached to the residence hall,” Pickett said. “And some of the accessible things were changing in Terrace 1 … that’s all happening in the Fall to make sure that the priority of what most people need to use [Terrace 1] is complete.”

Accessibility Issues 

Pickett said the main feedback that she received from resident assistants (RAs) is how some received difficulties from some of the dining staff when they used the accessible entrance to the dining hall in the past.  

Briggs said the dining staff was initially concerned because there was no swipe station at the accessible entrance. However, Briggs said the new entrance that will eventually replace the spiral staircase that people take to get to the ground floor of the dining hall will help manage the flow of traffic better. Terrace Dining Hall can fit approximately 700 people.

 “The spiral staircase entrance is arguably one of the worst entrances into a dining space I’ve ever seen in that it [places] you right into the primary service line,” Briggs said. “So we’re excited to have the new entrance that we’re bringing into the corner of the room. You’ll have the whole east side dining room to come into and spread out.”

As construction continues, some students are experiencing difficulties getting into and around the dining hall because of the restricted areas. Sophomore Oakley Weihing, president of the Disabled Students’ Alliance, said that while they are excited about the new renovations, the construction has caused the dining hall to become more inaccessible to students because of the restricted areas.

“It’s definitely more difficult to use the dining hall because it’s just a lot more stairs,” Weihing said. “A lot of people forget that accessibility goes beyond wheelchair accessibility. It’s like some of us can get up those three or four steps that are in the second-floor entrance, but it’s much more difficult to get off those three flights.”

McClatchie said this project will allow for more inclusivity between the upper campus and the lower campus, as the elevator and the connector will make it easier to traverse the entire campus.

“I just think that the big aspect of this is that it just opens up so many possibilities now that just haven’t been there before,” McClatchie said. “We’re very excited about it because we think it’s a needed addition to what we have and it just makes a lot of sense. In many ways it is an inclusive sort of thing because it doesn’t matter if you need to use the elevator or not, you still have an indoor walkway now that you never have before to be able to get so I tend to [think] there [are] benefits for all.”