More than two years since the college solicited student opinion about what to do with the area where Caflisch Hall formerly sat, the lot has still not seen any major developments.

Caflisch was demolished in August 2023, just six years before its 100th birthday, after the college determined that lack of student interest in living there and the cost of upkeep did not justify maintaining the building.

Just one month after the demolition, the college sent out a week-long survey to the student body soliciting ideas for the future of the space. Dean for the Student Experience Ian Binnington presented the preliminary results to the Allegheny Student Government at their General Assembly on Oct. 3, 2023. Student responses centered around outdoor features like hammock stands, a multi-use pavilion, athletic courts, firepits, picnic tables and a fountain.

“I actually think this all cohered into the general theme of the students that responded wanting a space to kind of relax, to hang out, to enjoy themselves in the outdoors,” Binnington told ASG at the time. “There is very little desire to simply have a new lawn.”

However, for nearly two years now, it has been just that. For the remainder of the 2023-2024 academic year, the space remained fenced off as the ground resettled after demolition crews left. The fences were taken down during summer 2024. Since then, grass has been reseeded and students have beaten a small footpath across the field as they pass between North Main Street and the Gator Quad.

At the Oct. 3, 2023, GA, Binnington told the assembled student government representatives that he expected to return at the end of that semester or early 2024 to propose and receive student input on final project plans.

“There’s a decent chance that ground doesn’t get broken for anything major until next spring…but I think there’s a decent chance that even for seniors, by the time you graduate in May, some of these things can have come to fruition,” Binnington told the GA. “This is not necessarily a project that we see taking years; a lot of the ideas that you have are things that we can do relatively quickly.”

As the school year progressed, ASG President Nicole Recio Bremer, ’25, and Vice President Sam Ault, ’26, in consultation with their cabinet, decided to pursue the idea of an outdoor classroom space — but not on the Caflisch lot. Dean for Student Life Trae Yeckley told The Campus in April 2024 that Recio Bremer and Ault opted not to use Caflisch in favor of a different location on campus due to noise and safety concerns.

The outdoor classroom space idea was conceptualized beside the Lawrence Lee Pelletier Library. Recio Bremer hoped to present the project proposal at ASG’s final meeting in spring 2024, but that presentation did not happen, leaving the project in limbo.

Notably, that spring, ASG leadership were told by the college administration that, the following year, they would not be allowed to retain their $530,000 surplus fund — the fund consisting of unspent student activity fees. The college mandated that ASG spend at least $200,000 of the fund, or else the money would be absorbed back into the college’s general fund, according to Yeckley and Campus reporting at the time. The outdoor classroom project qualified as a major capital project that ASG could have funded to protect its surplus fund.

Ultimately, Recio Bremer and Ault never brought the proposal in front of ASG for a vote. Nevertheless, after the final GA of the year, Recio Bremer and Ault decided together to fund the project, dedicating $154,000 of the ASG surplus fund to it.

“As we came to the end of the year and there was still no vote, ASG — knowing they had to spend some of their surplus that was left over from Covid — made the decision to invest in this,” Yeckley recently told The Campus. “It didn’t go for a vote to ASG but it was decided upon by student representatives.”

Yeckley does not recall whether Recio Bremer or Ault decided to allocate the funding using their authority before or after the last GA, leaving open the possibility that Recio Bremer and Ault decided to fund the project without an ASG vote even though ASG still had time to vote on it. Ault declined to comment.

“The way that ASG is set up is, yes, we do prefer to put votes and things in front of the students,” Yeckley recently told The Campus. “However, ASG president and vice president, as elected representatives of the student government, can act on behalf of the student government. It’s not unheard of that that has happened in the past, where they’ve come and made an executive decision. We just try not to do that.”

After the 2023-2024 academic year ended, Yeckley said Recio Bremer and Ault were also approached by Information Technology Services with another project proposal: to install outdoor Wi-Fi routers across campus. The combined proposed cost of the projects was over $200,000. Recio Bremer and Ault approved the funding.

With the two projects combined, Recio Bremer and Ault were responsible for approving over $200,000 of funding without the approval of the rest of ASG.

Yeckley emphasized that the spending occurred under Yeckley’s supervision and that Recio Bremer and Ault were acting on behalf of the student body.

“It makes it sound like they had the say in that,” Yeckley said. “No. Because there wasn’t a vote, it had to come through my office. So I made the final approval.”

The combined cost of the projects was enough to surpass the threshold set by the college for ASG, meaning ASG was allowed to retain the rest of its surplus fund.
Since then, the outdoor classroom project has been “significantly delayed by outside factors,” according to Campus reporting in April 2025. Yeckley does not know when classroom construction will begin, or what will become of the Caflisch lot.

In an email to The Campus, Binnington said construction will begin soon.

“The area where Caflisch Hall was will continue to be used as an extension to the Gator Quad space for student and community programming for now,” Binnington wrote. “The outcome of the conversation we had with students about that space in Fall 2023 is the outdoor classroom planned for the area next to the Library on East College. This project should begin progressing quickly over the next month or so as two pavilions are constructed in the area, but due to impending weather we don’t want to make any promises on timelines at this time.”

Current ASG President Chezka Quinola, ’27, said her administration will focus on short-term projects this year, such as installing accessibility ramps around campus and improving the menstrual product and condom dispensers in bathrooms. Quinola said she has no information as to the status of the Caflisch lawn.

“I have no idea what’s going on,” Quinola said. “I think at one point they were trying to make it an outdoor picnic area or, like, an outdoor lawn for recreation, but right now it’s just been an empty lot.”