College completes renovations over summer

Clearly F&M is a campus capable of rolling with the times, a fact evidenced both by the numerous changes that occurred over the summer and by those currently taking place. 

Seventy-five parking spaces were recently added to the Race Ave. parking lots after the city of Lancaster mandated additional on-campus parking to accommodate the growing student population, more of which will be housed on-campus upon the construction of the fifth College House.

The green campaign is also the source of some changes to campus. Recycling is being introduced to all buildings containing classrooms. Maria Cimilluca, associate vice president for facilities, advocates the green revolution and believes F&M will become even more environmentally competent. 

“Last year with Recycle Mania we came in fourth in the nation for cardboard recycling and ninth in the nation for glass and cans recycling,” she said. “So we’re going to work our way up to number one.”  

According to Cimilluca, the sustainability movement has permeated the entire campus. The new porous asphalt allows water to be stored and filtered underneath the lot. Rain gardens have also been incorporated on site and is integrated into the storm management for the area, as well. 

Cimilluca also described another effort to preserve and monitor water use that took place over the summer. 

“We replaced the main chiller for the campus and that will save us a lot of energy in terms of water for the campus,” she said.

Green initiatives are not the only changes taking place on the F&M campus. In Marshall Residence Hall, 24 rooms were added to replace the faculty daycare previously housed there. While new rooms were being constructed at Brooks, previously existing rooms were being upgraded in all other residence halls.

“In each of the residence halls we take out the carpet in a percentage of rooms and replace it with new tile flooring.” said Cimilucca

The interior of the residence halls is not the only thing that has seen change recently; two new sculptures from the Berman Foundation have been added to the landscape. A third will be added once renovations on the Phillips Museum are completed. 

Returning students will notice some changes have taken place to the art on campus.  The forefathers—Ben and John—have been united, which Cimilluca said was a purposeful move. 

“We had a master plan completed for the campus: bringing Ben and John together, making it a more cohesive piece, [and] bringing works of art together,” she said. “More and more as a liberal arts college we’re trying to integrate art as a part of the campus and we’re going to continue to grow our exhibition pieces as well as our other collection pieces.”

First-year Genevieve Pedley is a contributing writer. Her e-mail is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .