Major changes in the works for college Avenue, several buildings to be demolished and a state of the art large student center to be built
- Thread starter Tango Two
- Start date
Anyone have an update on when we can expect progress on this project?
Walked by Browers today and saw a construction fence around the front and courtyard
About freaking time that eyesore is going to be gone. Better late than never.
One thing to keep in mind with any major building and planning at Rutgers is the search for a new president. Nothing major is going to happen until we get a new president. This is true for any major planning at Rutgers. Who knows what direction the new President will want to go in, so most things go on hold.
Wasn’t this in the plan before Holloway?
That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
These things went through tons of planning and approvals years ago. I’d have to hope / imagine it’s all been included for in the budgets , resourcing etc for next few years. Bids already awarded, etc
I can’t imagine that whole thing gets held up or reversed by a new hire .. who likely would need months on the job before something like this warrants any of their attention for even a download on current status
Yes the original Rutgers 2030 plans were first made before Holloway. With a project as big as Rutgers 2030 the entire thing is not budgeted at one time. Parts of it are budgeted at a time, usually yearly as part of the yearly budget. Anything that has been budgeted will more then likely go through, but any plans that haven't been budgeted may never happen.
I good example of this is the proposed boardwalk on the Raritan. This was part of the original Rutgers 2030 plan, but it is no longer part of the plan.
I good example of this is the proposed boardwalk on the Raritan. This was part of the original Rutgers 2030 plan, but it is no longer part of the plan.
Do we know what was budgeted and will start construction before a new president is hired or during their first year?
My guess (and this is not based on any inside information) is that the demolition will go forward as scheduled, but that the new president will be able to alter the plan for what happens after that. Keep in mind also that budgets for future years are subject to change as conditions do.
I'm not 100% sure what was approve or not. I believe the start of the college ave greenway will be done, but I wouldn't hold out hope for the football fieldhouse since that I believe is still in the planning stages waiting for funding.
The football fieldhouse was estimated to cost $150 million five years ago before inflation set in. The cost now is probably at least $200 million. At least half was supposed to come from private sources and (thanks to the pandemic and the need for NIL money) fund-raising doesn't seem to have begun. I think it's going to be a long time before we have the fieldhouse. So @rutgersal will have plenty of opportunities to post about how much we need one for recruiting.
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Last I heard the Brower demo is being held up due to some facilities issue as it seems Brower shares utilities with other building not being Demoed. The CA quad will happen after the Demo. As for the fieldhouse. I have seen models but my understanding is it would need to be privately funded, so unless a donor wants to sign a check I don't see this happening anytime soon.
RU has known about the shared utilities since forever. Why decommission the only dining hall on the main campus if you weren't ready to tear it down? Why leave an ugly tarped up site for years in the middle of your main campus? How about Ford Hall. It's been vacant for years. It also has the red X in box symbol on the doors signifying a vacant hazard. Not a great look, again, right on College Ave, on your main campus. Are we that rudderless? Are we that broke? Are these rhetorical questions?
This just blows my mind. How can you be that incompetent that you close the dining hall and just let it rot? How many years now has it been sitting disused? That's criminal.
Ford is another story-- some are demanding it be designated it be deemed a landmark and be restored. Probem is it's loaded with aabesros.So it's lies in purgatory.
There is none. They've been doing takeout from some place in the student center from what I understand.
Correct, and many students especially freshmen(like my son Last year) hated the "Atrium" as it is mostly take out. My son and friends would routinely take buses to other campuses(Livi mostly) to get dinner.
When I was in school we used to like to go to Cooper Dining Hall on Douglass. Best food out there, and, of course, scenery.
I worked for Rutgers Facilities for a few months after graduation and before heading out to Armor School. Frequently found "reasons" to head over to C/D campus on nice days in the spring to work on stuff.
My fraternity still has a semi-functional kitchen but I was shocked at how little use it gets. Virtually everybody living there does take out or delivery and the dining room now has a ping pong table in it. So much for socializing around the table! I do recognize that times change.
Wow, that is a huge change. I wonder if that's ubiquitous across all fraternities: I'll have to ask around. I know when I was in school having a full kitchen and someone to cook meals was a huge benefit in belonging.
No idea how widespread that is but it'll be interesting to hear if you find out. We viewed it as a huge benefit.
I believe only one fraternity offers lunch and dinner at the chapter house now. I believe of the 8 sororities, only 2 offer an in-house meal plan. My daughter was in one of those two and preferred the meals to Brower. It was also cheaper than an RU meal plan. back in my day, the frat voted to not have in-house meals and we had 2 shifts for Brower dinner. Dinner was a great social hour with friends. Maybe things have changed, but in the era of phones/constant contact/social media, I think not having a sit down dining hall option for students is a huge miss. It's a big part of the college social experience. Shared living, shared buses, shared meals all have an impact on you.
Completely agree with this. My younger son Corey is a sophomore up at Rutgers Newark and going to the dining hall (or other options) with his friends/roommates is an important social interaction for him.
Totally agree on the sit down dining experience. Last year my house considered having some outfit cater dinners during the week but it never happened. Not sure why but they were going to bring it up again.
Not sure what you guys are talking about, but I was in a fraternity and graduated in '07. Only remember maybe 2-3 houses having a chef/kitchen with food and I don't think it was 7 days a week (could be wrong). Our kitchen sucked and the landlord just shoved a stove, fridge, counter, and commercial sink in the basement with a commercial hood above the stove and called it a kitchen. This was a house on Union Street that is no longer there. We definitely looked into it at one point, but there weren't enough people living outside the house to make it affordable and the existing 'kitchen' didn't help. Most people had the RU commuter dinning plans and did dinning hall take out or went to the dinning halls (took back food too in containers). Personally, I was on another campus all day (engineering) and was never on college ave to eat lunch/dinner. This was also the time they had Knight Express start up and some of the local eateries accepted it. I don't know if that still exists.
You're also dealing with mostly broke college kids that can't afford to pay however much it is per semester per kid to have food in the house. Rent is higher and, i'm throwing out a random guess here i made up, what is there maybe 2 fraternities that own their house outright through alums at RU? These kids are renting from landlords who raise rents every single year.
There's nothing luxury at RU fraternities compared to other schools across the nation. We had to squeeze 20 kids in 9 bedrooms because our landlord forced us to compensate the legal living arrangements for rent cost based on an X amount of people per Square Footage of bedroom living space. Fraternities that owned their homes didn't have alums pull that kind of stuff on undergrads.
I went on a tangent, but RU Greek life has never come close to Greek life across the country the past 20+ years.
You're also dealing with mostly broke college kids that can't afford to pay however much it is per semester per kid to have food in the house. Rent is higher and, i'm throwing out a random guess here i made up, what is there maybe 2 fraternities that own their house outright through alums at RU? These kids are renting from landlords who raise rents every single year.
There's nothing luxury at RU fraternities compared to other schools across the nation. We had to squeeze 20 kids in 9 bedrooms because our landlord forced us to compensate the legal living arrangements for rent cost based on an X amount of people per Square Footage of bedroom living space. Fraternities that owned their homes didn't have alums pull that kind of stuff on undergrads.
I went on a tangent, but RU Greek life has never come close to Greek life across the country the past 20+ years.
Very difficult to be a frat in 2025, at Rutgers. RU offers little support for the greek system, only rules and sanctions. We offered a $1000 donation to Dance Marathon , in return for 10 Blue lot passes for one game. ( more than double face value ) We never received a reply. The guys just wanted to have a tailgate at the game with a sorority...you know, a fun college football saturday. RU offers no place for students to congregate on the Busch campus for football games. SMH
Start at the end of College Ave
Zeta Psi owns house
Sammy owns house, rented to Pi Kap
DKE owns house
Chi Phi owns house
Alpha Sig owns house
Chi Psi owns house
AEPi owns house
Theta Chi owns house
Delta Phi owns house
Phi Sigma Kappa owns house
ZTA owns house
Phi Sig rents old DU house, private landlord
Gamma Phi Beta rents old OX house, private landlord
SDT rents old KS house
AGD rents old Crow house-Crow still owns, but under use agreement
PhiMu rents
Start at the end of College Ave
Zeta Psi owns house
Sammy owns house, rented to Pi Kap
DKE owns house
Chi Phi owns house
Alpha Sig owns house
Chi Psi owns house
AEPi owns house
Theta Chi owns house
Delta Phi owns house
Phi Sigma Kappa owns house
ZTA owns house
Phi Sig rents old DU house, private landlord
Gamma Phi Beta rents old OX house, private landlord
SDT rents old KS house
AGD rents old Crow house-Crow still owns, but under use agreement
PhiMu rents
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