SF State’s campus is getting bigger, and its buildings are becoming safer. Leroy Morishita, vice president for administration and finance, presented proposed revisions to the university’s physical master plan at Tuesday’s Academic Senate meeting in the Seven Hills Conference Center.

The university is quickly approaching the enrollment ceiling of 20,000 specified in the old master plan, last updated in 1989, Morishita said. The university has additional students enrolled in special programs like independent study, which may not meet regularly on university grounds and therefore are not included in this enrollment count.

“We’ve acquired property that permits us to build,” Morishita said.

This week, the university plans to buy the 24.81 acres of land, which includes all of the housing that is in Stonestown. The school purchased 2.81 acres of land in January, and plans use it in the process of replacing the HSS building and the Creative Arts building, both of which are not up to current state standards for earthquake safety.

The Stonestown property will remain as housing for at least 20 years, and current leases will be honored, Morishita said.

“I’m feeling great about this,” said SF State President Robert Corrigan.

Corrigan added that this is an investment in the future of the university, not simply focusing on immediate needs. The addition of new land will make the campus 50 percent larger than it was originally, and will give an opportunity for a greater community atmosphere.

The SF State campus is densely populated when compared with other state campuses, according to Corrigan. SF State’s 28, 804 students are currently using 106 acres, meaning there are 272 students per acre at the university. This figure is far above all other state campuses, with San Jose State University competing most closely with 189 students per acre.

The university must make changes to meet enrollment demand, which is continuously increasing, and put buildings in the right places. The university also needs to gauge the capacity of the campus’ density and growth in an orderly way, Morishita said.

Morishita also said the HSS building should be replaced by a new building at a different location. The Creative Arts building, in need of general renovation and better access for the disabled, should also be replaced, he said.

The campus library will also undergo expansion and renovation, including a new automatic book retrieval system. Groundbreaking for the library change is set to take place early next fall.

A seismic retrofit is in progress at Hensill Hall. Morishita said it will be completed in the middle of the spring, before commencement.

John Gemello, vice president and provost of Academic Affairs, said university planners want to determine where to place buildings so that courses and programs will benefit from them.

“Academic programs are the driver of this whole process,” Gemello said.

In adding and making changes to the campus, the university plans to conserve green space, such as lawn areas, according to Corrigan.

“Maybe you don’t put another building where the Creative Arts building was,” he said. “Even with large demonstrations, the green space is taken care of by students.”

Morishita said planners considered parking as part of the campus expansion. However, Corrigan and Morishita added that the cost of building a new above-ground parking lot would be extremely high, and likely passed along in some form to students who parked there in the future. He instead
encourage students to use public transportation should be encouraged instead.

Morishita said the purchase of the new land will positively impact the future of the university.

“This was opportunity we thought we had to take advantage of,” he added. “Our successors would think we were foolish if we didn’t.”

President Corrigan said he believes future generations of students will benefit form the purchase.

“Every generation has got to provide for future generations,” Corrigan said. Symbolically and otherwise, this is a step forward.”