SUBJECT: Fairlane Center

Dear Colleagues, 

If you read Chancellor Grasso’s Future of Work Report message, sent earlier this week, you may have noticed the Future of Work Committee suggested consolidating our campus footprint, including exploring the need and best use for the Fairlane Center. We want to assure everyone that a final decision regarding the future of the Fairlane Center has not been made at this time. This recommendation requires much exploration before any permanent move would be considered. 

There are many good reasons to consider campus consolidation. Chief among them include a better sense of collaboration and inclusion from having our students, faculty and staff in one location, a reduced need for bus transportation services, centrally-located student services, locally available food service, overall cost savings and reduced carbon footprint. 

At this time, we are gathering data and looking at short-term, temporary moves that will help us assess our on-campus space needs. We are conducting regular parking lot counts, considering holding spring/summer classes on the main campus, and “test fitting” Fall 2023 on-campus classes within the main campus footprint. We are completing counts of on-campus faculty, staff and students and collecting data about the extent of remote operations. This type of decision-making is a collaborative, multi-year process that is done in conjunction with our strategic visioning, campus master planning, annual budgeting, evolving teaching pedagogies and ongoing enrollment projections. 

As with any major campus decision of this magnitude there will be a thoughtful and careful review of the impact to our students, faculty and staff. The Future of Work Committee offered this as an idea for consideration and it is now time to explore if this recommendation is right for our campus community. 

We will continue to keep the campus community apprised of the evaluation and planning process regarding this recommendation and other suggestions in the Future of Work Report. In the meantime, please feel free to reach out to one of us with any questions or concerns. 

Sincerely, 

Gabriella Scarlatta

Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Bryan Dadey

Vice Chancellor for Business Affairs