At an open house in Skyline on April 22, Trinity unveiled the first iteration of its new campus master plan as a part of its broader “Ready, Set, Rise” strategic plan. While presenters stressed that the proposals were not final and would be revised based on community feedback, the plans gave an idea of the direction Trinity plans to move towards in the next 20 years.
The presentations were split into two sections that covered different parts of the master plan. One of the sections, “Mid-Campus Vision,” proposes a new student commons, which would act as a student living room, according to Andrew Wells, vice president of student affairs.
“I think of it as the place to see people and be seen in the way that the main floor of Coates Library often tends to be,” Wells said.
To decide the commons’ location, speakers asked community members to vote on one of two scenarios: connect the new student commons to Coates Student Center or construct a separate building west of Murchison Hall. Community members voted overwhelmingly for the latter scenario.
In either scenario, the main dining hall will eventually move to Coates, and Mabee Dining Hall will host Health and Wellness Services in one consolidated building. The plans to construct a new student commons building and migrate dining from Mabee to Coates are part of a larger plan to realign the location of student services to areas with high student traffic, Wells said.
“It means being cognizant that students have an ebb and flow of activity … The idea of a master plan is for us to look, in the aggregate, at how students live, work, study, socialize and create community, and think about how we can support that,” Wells said. “And one of the ways that we think we can support that is by having a dining facility that is updated, modernized and reflective of dietary needs, cultural food needs and is effectively utilizing space.”
Additionally, the Mid-Campus Vision presentation pitched a hill connector — a new green space that would take the place of the current Al G. Hill Jr. Tennis Stadium west of Murchison Hall. The hill connector, presenters said, would integrate the lower and upper campuses and act as an outdoor gathering space. It would be coupled with renovations to the George M. Storch Memorial Building and the removal of the parking lot south of Murchison, replaced by green space.
The second category of the master plan is called Plan Systems and focuses on student living systems on campus, such as health services, residential halls, athletics and parking. Along with consolidating all Health and Wellness Services in what is currently Mabee, the master plan also called for the relocation of the Jim Potter Intramural Field to the parking lots currently west of Mabee. The space currently occupied by the Jim Potter Intramural Field would be the new home of the tennis courts.
The current proposals would remove the parking lots west of Mabee and south of Murchison. However, presenters acknowledged that Trinity’s parking lots are near full capacity, and advocated for a policy of increasing parking space while decreasing parking demand. The plan proposed potential parking lots on the west campus off of East Kings Highway and on north campus off Hildebrand Avenue, on top of a new one to two-story underground parking underneath the new intramural field. These new lots, paired with already existing parking on and near campus, would amount to a net gain of 371 parking spaces if all plans are approved.
Additionally, they proposed a number of methods to decrease parking demands, including subsidized transit passes, developing bike and scooter accessibility, offering parking cash-out incentives and restricting first-year parking — although all of these proposals were hypothetical.
However, Morgan Hegemier, sophomore biology major, had doubts about Trinity’s plans to reduce parking demand, particularly by encouraging students to bike. Trinity’s campus isn’t bikeable, she said, and she’s often felt frustrated with bikers or scooter owners’ reckless driving. While she’s taken the San Antonio bus system before, she feels there’s a stigma around it that students might not be able to get over.
“Trinity’s a very wealthy campus, and a lot of people, I would say, are not comfortable riding the bus,” Hegemier said. “I think a lot of people would like to agree with this, but I don’t think a lot of people would actually do it.”
Other proposals from the Plan Systems presentation include the “Living-Learning Corridor” and the “Open Space Network.” Both proposals are geared towards increasing access and quality of life on campus by expanding pathways and central gathering areas, as well as building more green spaces in the Trinity Park, across the street from City Vista apartments, and recreating Trinity’s historical cactus garden between Coates Student Center and Calvert Hall.
The master plan is currently in its second phase, and all proposals are subject to change. Community feedback from the open house will be gathered to refine the plan, and a second showcase will be held in fall 2026. A final plan will be presented to the Trinity community in spring 2027.
*This story was updated on April 30
