Dean of Students Manuel Carreiro said he expects the university to replace WQAQ radio station’s transmission tower “before the snow comes,” during a meeting with the Student Government Association on Sept. 20.
An engineer has submitted all the necessary paperwork regarding the planned relocation of the tower to Joe Rubertone, the director of facilities, Carreiro told the 36-member association. Rubertone will in turn submit the proposal to university President John Lahey, who will decide the fate of the tower, he said.
“All the paperwork is in place,” Carreiro said. “.One of the bad things about democracy is that it takes forever. That is why I am looking to move quickly on this matter.”
The university’s removal of the 50-foot-tall radio tower from the top of the Carl Hansen Student Center has generated a wave of discontent among students since the start of classes one month ago. Administrators have defended their action by contending the tower was aesthetically displeasing.
Another topic Carreiro spoke about at the meeting was that of the university’s inability to provide housing to seniors and many juniors. The recently begun construction of additional dormitories behind the Village residence halls will provide housing for 330 students upon the project’s completion in one year, he said. But that project is the last expansion the university will be able to make on its main campus, in accordance with Town of Hamden zoning regulations, he said.
“You are not going to be able to stop us from growing,” Carreiro said, referring to the Town of Hamden. “My hope is that undergraduate students who wish to live on campus will be able to do so.”
About 3,400 students currently live on campus. The university enrolls about 5,400 undergraduate students. The university is planning to build residence halls on the York Hill campus that would house about 1,500 undergraduate students. Administrators want to meet with students to get their input regarding the number of students who should live in each suite in the planned dormitories at York Hill, Carreiro said.
“I want to get as many of you there as I can,” he said, noting he would be meeting with Student Government Association President Ross Greenstein to discuss this matter.
Carreiro answered questions from SGA members after his talk. Suesan Ziegler, a representative of the junior class, asked Carreiro why the university had not widened Bobcat Alley during the summer, as it had intended to do.
“It just got away from us. . I am not trying to make excuses. But you can’t get to Point C without first getting to Point A and then Point B,” Carreiro said.
Andy Clark, a representative of the sophomore class, posed a more abstract kind of question to Carreiro: “It seems like the administrators are really focused on the future of the school. What are they doing about the present concerns of the students?”
Carreiro responded by acknowledging that administrators are indeed focused on the future of the university, though he did not indicate he thought such an action was detrimental to the current classes of students. Nevertheless, after a contemplative pause, Carreiro said: “Whatever issue you want to address, you got to keep it in our faces.”
