By Вen Li
Students seeking new prayer space atop MacEwan Hall will have to wait until August, despite the generosity of the university administration.
“Peggy Patterson has been very generous and has given us the cash to fund the whole thing,” said Students’ Union Vice-President Operations and Finance Gavin Preston. “The reason why it hasn’t been completed is coupled with cjsw and nutv moving.”
The unfinished area will house new spiritual space, as well as new offices for cjsw and nutv.
Previously, former Students’ Union VP Op-Fi Robbie White stated that renovation of the spiritual space awaited a financial commitment of $125,000 from the university in addition to the SU’s $200,000.
With that funding in place, remaining work on the third floor will begin when all parties involved are ready, according to Preston. He cites as a major impedance the boards of directors of both student broadcast media organizations who have yet to approve construction plans for their parts of the new space. Such plans must be in place before a construction permit is granted.
“I’m looking for construction to start at the end of August or early September,” said Preston.
According to Preston, relocating ntuv and cjsw will facilitate other redevelopment in MacEwan Students’ Centre, including the relocation of the Copy Centre and completion of the retail corridor on the ground floor.
“The so-called ‘incompletoplex’ has remained incomplete for an entire year [2002–2003] without any progress being made. We approved the space and that was it,” said Preston.
Students approved the current $7 per semester expansion levy in 1995. Construction began in the fall of 2000 and was completed in January 2002.