On Feb. 5, students at SUNY Oswego began seeing new caution signs preventing pedestrians from passing by the Hewitt Quad and Mahar Hall. Professors and students believed that a skiing event may be prepared. Others thought that maybe it was a skating event.​

However, as the days passed, more metal posts were put up around the area and a roll of metal that seemed like a fence was found nearby. This has caused pedestrians to change their paths. Students have to walk by Hewitt Hall to get to Lanigan Hall, Penfield Library, Marano Campus Center and other residence halls.

“They are renovating this entire building, and they are also renovating the quad,”​ Brendan Brown, the owner of Nine Line Rentals, a construction business located in Rochester, New York, said.

“[We want to] install a temporary fence around the site to keep the pedestrians and the students away from the construction for their safety,” Brown said. He also said the fence was meant to keep contruction workers inside so there is a boundry between them and students

On Feb. 12 Resient Life and Housing sent an email announcing the shutdown at Mahar and surrounding areas to prepare the renovations. They stated in the email that these renovations will last until Jan. 29, 2029.  After this information went out, the fence was put up with a green fabric surrounding it, stopping pedestrians from entering the area.

 The moment the fence was put up, the path to Lanigan and Penfield changed. Students needed to change their route by walking the sidewalk that could lead to Hewitt, Cooper Dining Hall or to Penfield and Lanigan. Many students have been going over the path of snow just outside the fence to try to find a way of keeping a similar shortcut to what they used to have before the fence was put up. 

A student who had a class in Lanigan Hall Nathan Orechovsky, has a particular perspective about the fence. 

“It’s been annoying having to go the extra [steps] to just get around it,” Orechovsky said. 

With these changes, many students are figuring out a new routine that works best for them to arrive at their work or classes in Lanigan or Penfield on time.

The fence has left people wondering what the plans for Mahar and the quad might be. 

Associate Vice President for Facility Services at SUNY Oswego Mitch Fields explained that the renovations have, “been ongoing for probably two years.” Fields said that they have “been in design for a couple of years,” and further described the process for renovations. 

The renovations were put up for a construction bid around early fall and “through that bid process [was] awarded the construction contract and that’s where we are,” Fields said. 

The contractor that will renovate the building has begun and fences will show where the work will be happening on campus 

“Anywhere inside that fence is property now of the State University Construction Fund and the contractor who is renovating the building,”  Fields said. “Mahar is being completely renovated top to bottom. It will be a demolition phase where they remove everything in the building except the structure elements. They will remove all the hazard material.”

The new roof will get skylights similar to the ones that are in Hewitt.  

“We cut holes in Hewitt. There are actually openings in the window wells in Mahar that will be covered with skylights,” Fields said.  

Mahar will hold mostly humanities courses, along with a dean’s suite. It will be similar to Hewitt, stylistically, with informal student spaces.

Due to the weather conditions workers will begin inside. 

“They’ll be doing a lot of demolition inside and when the weather becomes workable, they will go to the outside,” Fields said. “All that concrete will be removed in the quad inside the fence. They will put in geothermal wells for the heating and cooling systems and that area will be grassed over.” 

The reason the quad will be changed from concrete to grass, is that the pavement on campus was made large enough to have 13,000 students and we only have about 5,500.

“Paving is expensive to repair, grass is not as expensive to repair …, it self-heals,” Fields said. 

Grass is more ecological compared to concrete

“Paving has a lot of water runoff that pollutes the Great Lakes,” Fields said. 

When the quad has the concrete changed to grass, everything will be at ground level, because the steps to the quad will be removed.