Union notes from Union / Management Meeting
/Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Dennis Cecere, Peter Cokkinias, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Teodros Kiros, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, and Will Silvio.
Management – Jay Kennedy, Bill Whitney, Kari Juusela, Jeanine Cowan, Chris Connors, and Steven Riggs.
- Jay opened the meeting. 160 Mass Ave Building Construction Project Overview – Bill Whitney made a presentation. This weekend barriers are going up around the area to protect the pedestrians and traffic. There will be a loss of parking around the area. There is a deal with the Westland Street garage, $10 a day or $170 a month – details in the Faculty/Staff news. Demo of the building should be done by end of November. December, below ground construction will begin. Foundation work will take several months to prepare with the removal of the “fill” that is currently there, before construction can begin. The goal is to have the building open in the fall of 2013. Then planning will begin for the renovation of 161-171 Mass Ave and the corner tower at Mass and Boylston. Space is at a premium; we need to consider asking the commercial tenants to move, renovate, then move in OR just move in now and do the work while we are there. In terms of Valencia, the majority of money for Valencia is gifts specifically for Valencia and we cannot use it here.
Union: once this project is done, I hope that we are included in the discussion of the reallocation of our current space; perhaps we could have more space for faculty offices in the new plans.
Management: berklee.edu/taskforce is a website that has plans of the new space.
- 1140 Bathrooms – a study has been done, we have a plan and Steven Riggs discussed it. There is a core area between 2-5 behind the elevator that will serve as new bathrooms, health areas, and non-gender bathrooms.
Union: the most important element through this process is communication with faculty. We need to know that you are working on a solution.