Paige Backman
pbackman@uwyo.edu
The Michael B. Enzi STEM Facility opening has been pushed back to the spring of 2016 even though some of the facilities were initially planned on being usable for fall of 2015.
Despite assurances that the late opening of the complex would avoid potential setbacks for undergraduate laboratory courses, some students and staff have felt the effects of the timing.
At the time of the building’s groundbreaking the completion was scheduled for spring of 2015. Because some educators at the university have been planning on teaching with the new facilities, the nearly six-month delay has become a considerable inconvenience.
Matthew Arrollo, an elementary education major, has been effected by the delayed completion of the building. As part of his degree requirement, Arrollo is required to take a particular section of physics geared toward education students called Physics 1090, he said.
His professor mentioned to the class that he planned the curriculum around being held in a laboratory in the Enzi STEM Building for the fall semester and the effects of the delay have become evident.
“I feel like we aren’t able to use our class time wisely due to the fact that we aren’t in the Enzi Building like we thought,” Arrollo said.
He said the syllabus schedule of the class has been altered more than a few times because of the lack of proper facilities.
“There will be lecture for the first hour of class and then when we are initially scheduled to be in a lab experiment – we have to wait two days to schedule accommodations,” he said.
Any number of causes is possible for the setback, but Chad Baldwin, UW associate vice president of communications and marketing, said he is doubtful that funding for the project was a contributor to the delay.
“There are multiple factors,” he said. “Some had to do with manpower, some had to do with materials, some perhaps with weather – it’s a variety of things.”
Funding for the Enzi STEM Facility was made available through a 2011 Wyoming legislative appropriation of $50 million in federal Abandoned Mine Land’s dollars.
“It is worth pointing out that unlike the other construction projects on campus, this one, because of the source of the money is being administered by the State of Wyoming Construction Office,” Baldwin said.
In other words the current state fiscal situation is not effecting the completion of the STEM building.
Baldwin said prior to the beginning of the fall semester classes had been scheduled in the STEM Facility and were displaced. He added that the spring semester classes are being planned in older facilities to avoid further disruption.
Baldwin said plans to distribute courses to labs and rooms in the facility for spring 2016 are under discussion now. A resolution from department heads, facilities planning and construction managers can be expected in the coming weeks. The updated completion date is now set for Nov. 30.
