When asked to describe the location of the Registrar Office, the majority of St. John’s students will illustrate it as being placed conveniently between Marillac and Council Hall, right alongside the Bursar office.
Likewise, Newman Hall houses Financial Aid, while Sun Yat Sen’s neighbor, the Chiang Ching Kuo building, is best known for playing host to the Speech and Hearing Center. However, to the dismay of many, all of that is about to change.
In an attempt to centralize all academic buildings around the Great Lawn, the University will be implementing a plan to relocate a large portion of St. John’s staples.
The most essential of services and departments will soon be uprooted and forced into becoming reacquainted with new locations, adding to the confusion on an already-confusing campus.
This campus rearrangement plan is set to take place over the course of the academic year, with the first changes happening as soon as Thanksgiving Break. As if the random construction around campus is not enough, the implementation of these moves will only add chaos and unsightliness to the Queens Campus.
These sorts of changes should take place over one of St. John’s extended breaks, such as winter or summer, as the majority of students are away from campus. Simply, if this must occur, which is apparently the case, it should not occur now.
Despite the fact that these changes will leave the St. John’s community in a state of disarray for an unknown period of time, the preliminary moves are already in the works.
The very first of these changes will be the movement of the Speech and Hearing Center, the Center for Psychological Services and Clinical Studies, and the University Reading Center to an off-campus location.
However, they will not be moving to just any random off-campus location, but to St. John’s newest addition- the off-campus home of many SJU students: 152-11 Union Turnpike.
Right out of the gate, this seems to be a disadvantage to a plethora of St. John’s students and employees. For the students who visit the center on a regular basis and are able to do so between classes, that convenience is now gone. This will provide a grave inconvenience to many, considering that students in the fields of speech pathology frequent the center to use various equipment and gain hands-on experience.
On top of the inconvenienced speech pathology students, this move will cause quite an annoyance for those who reside at 152-11 Union.
During business hours, the building will be overflowing with both non-residents students and SJU employees. Aside from the basic crowding, there will be a lack of parking. Currently, there is not enough parking for the 84 students who live in the building, so the addition of a multitude of visitors to the complex is bound to cause unnecessary traffic and aggravation for students, employees, and nearby residents.
According to current plans, the space vacated by the Speech and Hearing Center will be taken over by Financial Aid, Bursar, and Registrar. The likes of Tobin and CPS will then move into their new offices located where the Bursar and Registrar offices currently stand, leaving many students befuddled.
Considering the long-lines that already exist in many of these offices and the fact that most of them are not exactly the most organized workplaces, this campus rearrangement is bound to wreak havoc.
Expect lost information and a bevy of other administrative misdemeanors.
These mishaps will probably continue until everything is situated and settled, and it is impossible to even fathom how long that could take.
With the rearranging of various services and departments on the Queens campus, it seems that next year may provide an unwelcome study in inconvenience and agitation.
