A season of change is expected to come for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette as construction on and off campus kick starts a slew of upcoming projects.
In December of 2023, the beloved Cajun Field was demolished, making way for Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium, set to be completed in August of 2025. It was a bittersweet goodbye for the Ragin’ Cajun community. At the same time, the demolition ushered in a new era– an era of new beginnings for the university.
Following the construction of the new football stadium, a plethora of exciting projects began, including both massive projects and minor upgrades to existing buildings. Scott Hebert, the director of facility management, said, “We have a number of projects going on at the time.” He added, “You can see a few of them if you walk around campus.”
On the university’s south campus, besides the ongoing renovations on Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium, a new Kinesiology Hospitality Management Athletic Administration Complex is in the process of being designed and finalized. Construction for this new facility is set to begin after the home side of the new stadium is completed and the football season comes to a close.
On the main campus, the renovation of Madison Hall and the construction of the new engineering building are already underway. An upcoming project is a major upgrade to the Health Sciences Campus. The existing oncology building will be torn down to open up the space for a new four-to-five story regional simulation center, allowing for much more advanced high fidelity simulation equipment.
Other upcoming projects on campus are renovations to Montgomery Hall, Billeaud Hall, Foster Hall and DeClouet Hall.
Off-campus, the university is looking at a new Learning Lab school, which will be housed at UL Lafayette’s Research Park, taking over the building that was previously occupied by the National Marine Fisheries Service, a federal agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Finally, projects in Iberia Parish include a new Biosafety Level 3 (BSL- 3) laboratory and a BioInnovation Accelerator drug manufacturing facility at the New Iberia Research Center.
As change is absolutely necessary for growth, these projects will bring significant improvements to the university. The facility upgrades will not only foster innovation but also improve the quality of education and maintain competitiveness for the university as a state institution.
Upgrades to the buildings of the different colleges introduce a collaborative approach to learning. It allows for additional research and the right sizing of any laboratory equipment, classrooms and auditoriums. This makes the learning environment more approachable and conducive, benefitting both students and teachers.
Hebert shared, “Both the renovations of Madison Hall and the new engineering building together, that is gonna drastically change the shape of how the engineering curriculum and the engineering department can function.” With more student-centered spaces, the learning environment will become more collaborative, allowing students of different concentrations to exchange ideas and knowledge.
In terms of funding, as the university is affiliated with the state of Louisiana, the Office of Facility Management has been working closely with the university’s administrators to secure funding from the state.
When asked about whether any portion of student fees go towards these projects, Hebert replied, “Those fees are specifically for the upkeep and maintenance of buildings on campus, or additions to the master plan that we have put forth that we want to try to achieve.”
The funding for large projects like the building of new facilities come strictly from the state as capital outlay projects, where legislators and senators decide what amount of money they are able to carve out from the state budget for the university.
With the ongoing constructions on campus, students are concerned about what disruptions to expect. In response to this concern, Hebert said, “We try to minimize the disruptions to the students and the faculty and staff.” He added, “Part of the planning that we have is actually trying to keep the major sidewalks and arteries on campus open.”
These arteries are avenues which are essential for students to get around campus in between classes and other activities. Hence, this was a factor that was heavily considered in the process of planning the facility upgrade projects.
Hebert urges students to reach out to the Office of Management Facility if an area on campus appears to be causing a serious hindrance.
If the concern is mutual among many students, then it is a problem that they will try their best to address.
Making reference to the State of the University address given by the president of UL Lafayette, Dr. Joseph Savoie, Hebert said, “The amount of work that we have going on is equivalent to the growth that the university experienced from the end of World War II until now.”
In the past 10 to 15 years, the university has gone through major developments with the expansion of the Student Union and the building of the Quadrangle, suite style residential halls, The Heritage Apartments and Legacy Park.
The university strives to continuously develop and improve, making academic facilities as modern and highly technological as possible while still ensuring the architecture style throughout campus remains cohesive with the southern Georgian touch.