CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, this article incorrectly stated the area that will be renovated. If the proposal passes, The Tawes Theatre – which is not utilized often – will be replaced by three new classrooms. Several student quotes expressing disapproval are therefore inaccurate.

As officials finalize plans to overhaul the current CORE curriculum and implement the new general education program, Facilities Management crews are helping by constructing three new classrooms in Tawes Hall – a project that will cost the department $12.9 million.

The project, which has been listed as a “high priority project,” still awaits approval from the Board of Regents – the 17-member governing body that oversees the University System of Maryland. The board is slated to vote on it in June. The project, which is expected to take about two years and officials have just begun planning, involves tearing down The Tawes Theatre and instead replacing it with three classrooms to support new classes that will fall under the new general education program that begins this fall.

“We’re hoping to have not only just additional space, but good, high-quality, flexible learning space,” Associate Provost for Academic Planning and Programs Elizabeth Beise said.

Since officials are 1.7 million square feet short of land to carry out projects proposed in the Facilities Master Plan – a 123-page guide to development and landscaping for the campus over the next decade – they said the project will efficiently make use of space on the campus.

“Part of the building has not been used, by and large has not been used since the performing arts building opened up and folks moved out of Tawes,” Facilities Planning Director Brenda Testa said. “I think that is the most significant accomplishment of this project.”

But Testa added the construction will not have a significant effect on the overall deficit for both university offices and classrooms.

“Yes, it will reduce the deficit of space we have, but minimally,” Testa said.

Some students, however, said they still use the Ulrich Recital Hall to attend seminars and lectures and do not think it should be torn down.

“I don’t think that’s really the truth, because most of the English events are held in Ulrich, such as ‘Writers Here and Now’ and ‘English Undergraduate Lecture Series,'” junior English and art major Codi Gugliuzza said. “I don’t think it’s the same when it’s at CSPAC.”

Currently, preliminary plans hope to move the American studies department into the new offices.

But because the project will more efficiently house departments officials said the benefits of the project outweigh potential drawbacks.

“The department of American studies is one of the units that currently lives in Holzapfel and they will need to move out,” Beise said. “So this was seen as an opportunity to give them a nice home that’s close to some of the other units that are in arts and humanities.”

While the project may ultimately benefit some students and faculty, some students worry two years of construction could be distracting to classes in Tawes.

“I feel like it would be really disruptive,” junior English and romance languages major Katie ten Hagen said.

But officials said the project will benefit the university as a whole in allocating space for future projects.

“It will certainly help,” Beise said. “It’s not really going [to] increase the amount of office space available, but it’s going to help us solve an issue, which is that we have to move people.”

amenabar@umdbk.com