By Addison Mason

BRISTOL, R.I. – At the Town Hall Student Senate held on April 20, Gloria Arcia, Executive Vice President for Finance, and Provost Dr. Margaret Everett explained the first phase of renovations to Global Heritage Hall and the Gabelli School of Business. Numerous areas in both buildings will be relocated for use this coming fall.  

Spaces in GHH that will be renovated include the atrium, the Design Thinking Studio, and the cafe. Other spaces will be added, such as a boardroom and an STOICO Computer Lab. Along with this, the outside of the building will also be renovated for a more modern and inviting style. Dr. Everett stated, “We want it to be inviting, we want it to be long-lasting and meaningful to people.”

New areas that will be added to the new humanities building include a Newsroom, general classrooms, a graphic design studio, and a gallery. The exterior of the building will also be renovated and refurbished. 

Among the switches of these two buildings, Dr. Everett and Arcia expressed plans to connect the College of Arts and Sciences to the Visual Arts Facility, or “The Muffin,” to create a gallery walkway through that area of campus. 

Other plans include phase four for the old School of Engineering, which will add new spaces to the building. The new spaces include an environmental science lab, a research room, a cyber lab, and a general classroom. 

Additionally, Arcia presented the new plans for the first-year residence hall, Cedar. “We’re going to be doing a study of Cedar Hall that will lead to a pretty significant renovation of that residence hall in a future phase.”

These renovations will take place over the summer and will provide spaces that will be usable as early as next semester. 

At the moment, phase two is set to take place over the summer of 2027.