When the Yale College Council learned they would receive office space in the new Broadway organizations activities space last winter, they did not expect to start the year storing their records in YCC President Vidhya Prabhakaran’s ’03 dormitory room.
Delays in the planning stages of the new Broadway facility have prevented the Yale Herald, New Journal and YCC from moving into their new office spaces.
In addition, since the Herald’s new office is not ready, the St. Thomas More Catholic Center and Chapel cannot begin renovations to the brick building on Park Street that currently houses the Herald and other organizations. The St. Thomas More Center plans to lease the building from Yale once the current tenants have vacated it.
Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg said the administration sent architects back to the drawing board several times in designing plans for the 6,000 square-foot facility, which will also have a common space for all other student groups to share.
“It was just a more complicated project than we thought it might be,” Trachtenberg said. “We’d never done anything like this before. Because it was something that had no precedent, we kept changing our minds.”
Although Prabhakaran is currently storing the YCC’s records in his room, he said the administration has told him that the new office would be ready around February.
“Apparently it’s basically built, but it needs electronic stuff like Ethernet,” Prabhakaran said.
The administration still is trying to work out problems like how late the office will remain open and how many ethernet and phone connections are necessary.
“It’s very difficult to know how many groups are going to use it,” Trachtenberg said.
Herald Editor in Chief Andrew Heller ’03 said that the dean’s office has reassured the weekly paper it will not lose its Park Street office until the new one is ready.
Kerry Robinson, the development director for the St. Thomas More Center, also said the center would not start renovations on Park Street until the Broadway space opened.
“The chapel would not move in until everyone who is currently there has space to move into,” Robinson said.