Despite shouldering an additional $17.7 million for the JDUC renovations, undergraduate students don’t know what’s going on with the building’s revitalization project.
Since its inception in 2018, the JDUC revitalization project has run $23 million over its intended budget, with student fees paying for the majority of the price increase. Undergraduate students are paying $62.3 million, while graduate students are contributing $9.2 million to the $85.6 million project.
The JDUC was supposed to welcome AMS services and clubs on Aug. 1, but after construction delays, the opening date was pushed back to Nov. 29.
The delays have impacted Layla Artzy’s, ArtSci ’25, job in the AMS. For the past two years, she’s worked as a barista at Common Ground Coffeehouse (CoGro). CoGro’s sister location, The Brew, will remain closed for the foreseeable future, disappointing Artzy.
“CoGro has been working super hard to reopen The Brew and then with all these delays, they just haven’t been able to,” Artzy said in an interview in The Journal.
After speaking with fellow students, Artzy believes undergraduates are unaware of what’s happening with the revitalization or when the building will open to students.
“I feel like a lot of students are super in the dark about the situation. That’s what I’ve understood. It seems like a lot of people in the AMS don’t really know any dates for sure,” Artzy said in an interview with The Journal.
While AMS executives and employees are concerned about the JDUC’s progress, the general student body has other priorities, like class and extracurricular activities. During her first year, when the JDUC was still open, Artzy described the student hub as a “ghost town.”
While Artzy feels confused, Rachel Bugera, ConEd ’28, expresses disappointment. The sound of drills and the sight of workers is familiar to Bugera, who witnessed the construction project two years ago when she toured Queen’s campus.
“I am disappointed to hear that [the JDUC] won’t be opening until November given that it has been under construction since I first toured Queen’s two years ago,” Bugera said in a statement to The Journal.
As a ConEd student, Bugera looks forward to seeing the Concurrent Education Students’ Association (CESA) office in the JDUC. That is when the building finally opens.
Tags
JDUC, JDUC revitalization, the Brew
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