Though Schar Hall is now officially open, anyone walking through the McEwen building will notice construction within the School of Communications is far from done. Two rooms in McEwen are undergoing major renovations. On the first floor, interior renovations are underway for the newsroom, the future home of Elon News Network. In McEwen’s basement, crews are constructing new studios for WSOE student radio.
According to Paul Parsons, dean of the School of Communications, these renovations were originally scheduled to be completed much earlier, but delays in the construction of Schar Hall pushed the entire timetable back.
“We had to do McEwen in two phases,” Parsons said. “The first phase was when almost all of McEwen was renovated over the summer. But then we had to wait for the newsroom and the radio station until we could shift the classes into Schar Hall.”
In the days since Schar Hall opened on October 20, 31 classes have moved into the new facility clearing the McEwen rooms in need of renovation.
While the new construction in McEwen will provide students and faculty, with state-of-the-art facilities when finished, some complained that noise from power tools was disrupting classes in other parts of the building.
“We’ve had drilling going on in McEwen that has disrupted classes for at least two or three days,” Parsons said. “They have changed their schedule now so they’ll be doing the drilling on Friday afternoons and on the weekends from here on.”
Students have also voiced their displeasure about the prolonged construction, saying it is hard to focus in class with all the banging and noise.
“[Construction] has been a bit distracting, especially when you are taking a test and hear loud noises or someone in the window on a lift,” said sophomore and strategic communications major Jack Hamilton. “But in the end, it will be worth it.”
In the months leading up to Schar Hall’s opening, the timetable for completion was not widely publicized as the construction extended later than originally planned. The School of Communications identified weather delays as the cause, but the delays have left many— including Parsons—skeptical about the construction schedule for McEwen’s interior renovations. “We were told this week that construction will finish on the newsroom and the radio station space before Thanksgiving,” Parsons said. “We’ll have to allow a couple of weeks probably for technology to come in and do the technology, the data points, et cetera. But certainly, by the end of the semester, these two spaces in McEwen will be ready for move-in.”
Crews are still putting finishing touches on the outside of Schar Hall too, completing sidewalks and landscaping in front of the building. Next door, heavy machinery is still being used to build Steers Pavilion, another new School of Communications building.
Parsons said the current construction, inside and out, will be fully complete by the end of the semester. He added that next spring will bring more renovations to the historic neighborhood. Interior renovations to the Long Building will begin in the spring. Additionally, the recently announced LaRose Student Commons building construction will most likely begin in the spring, as Elon has announced plans for the building, but has yet to release a timetable for the project.