Nineteen years ago this week, the Board of Trustees approved plans to change the planned location of the campus center from Fayerweather Hall to a proposed freestanding building between Mead Art Center and the social dorms-the location of the campus center today. In addition, the board cancelled plans to build an entirely new fine arts center to be attached to Mead, proposing instead that the fine arts department be moved to Fayerweather Hall. In explaining the board's reasons for the cancellation of the original plans, then-President Peter Pouncey cited the "enormous costs [that] still necessitated major compromises and compressions of space with which no one would be satisfied."

Professor of Fine Arts Joel Upton applauded this decision: "Although the new building could [have been] an elegant and harmonious structure fostering the collective goals of the art department on this campus, the amount of space provided by the budget was only marginally adequate ... There would have been an inadequate modernization of the museum. The art library would have had only adequate growth potential, and furthermore, there would be no photo lab."

The Presidential Advisory Committee on Residential and Social Life (PACSRL) was charged with designing the campus center. The group, headed by Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science Austin Sarat, projected a $7 million cost instead of the $5.5 million originally designated to redesign Fayerweather to house a campus center. "The guiding principles for the campus center-that it should be a gateway from the upper part of campus to the lower part of campus, that it should be a neutral space, and that it should be completely for non-academic purposes-will stay the same," said Sarat.

The original plans for the campus center included "a snack bar, coffee house, bookstore, a combination backroom and large multi-purpose room for large gatherings, a game room, movie theatre, conference rooms, lounge space and the post office," according to The Student.

-Justine Chae