The Student Government Association (SGA) held a public forum to allow a panel to discuss the Campus Master Plan on Oct. 17. The panel was made up of Danny Anderson, president of the university, Sharon Schweitzer, assistant vice president for university communications, and Gordon Bohmfalk, architect and director of Campus Planning and Sustainability. The three explained the Campus Master Plan and offered the Trinity community a chance to ask questions and offer input.

Anderson gave a detailed description of the current plan, including a history of Trinity’s construction and development.

“We are going off of past experiences to think about what this campus should look like,” Anderson said. “We have drawn some conceptual designs that will develop into projects that will try to stay true to Trinity’s history, while still staying modern.”

The forum was split into two sections. First, a presentation of the plans for the campus. The main focus of the plan is promoting the green beauty of Trinity; this includes continuing the campus’s precedent of being an eco-friendly community, making food more easily accessible and promoting the growing sports programs here at Trinity

“We’re trying to protect open spaces, historic places, and trying to preserve the theme and feeling within Trinity’s campus. So becoming a historic district is something that really fits us,” Anderson said.

The Campus Master Plan includes ideas for turning the Mabee parking lot into a park with a roundabout road system running through campus. A student at the event raised the question of where the cars using this lot will go. Anderson and the panel replied that they are taking into consideration that cars may not be as popular in the future.

The second part of the forum was set in Q&A format, where students took the floor and asked questions that they felt were most pressing. There was a general concern about the food availability and development on campus, like closer access to Prassel and Lightner Halls, satellite dining and a shift of main dining options to upper campus.

“If main dining was moved to upper campus, what would happen to Mabee?” asked senior president of SGA, Nick Santulli.

The panel gave some options, but gave no clear description of what would happen to the dining hall. Other students were more interested in direct involvement with the plan.

“Do you have plans to involve students [with the Campus Master Plan]?” asked sophomore SGA senator Benjamin Gonzalez.

The panel made it clear that the university has plans to involve students through a variety of options that are still being solidified in the plan.

Anderson and the panel gave an in-depth view of what Trinity has in store for the future, and there was a large emphasis on the plan’s malleability. This public forum is an example of Trinity’s willingness to have direct student involvement, as long as there are students willing to be involved.

The plan discussed is still developing and will change. The input of the entire Trinity community is welcomed. The current plan can be found at strategicplan.trinity.edu.