The Keeland Building is one of the last remaining student-designated maker spaces on campus after closing the maker space in the engineering building. However, because it lacks a sustainable revenue stream, it may be forced to charge students a $50 fee to use the lab.| Raphael Fernandez/ The Cougar
Last week, the College of Architecture and Design Student Council members hosted a town hall meeting in the Gerald D. Hines building to address the financial challenges plaguing the Keeland Design Lab in recent years.
The Keeland Building is one of the last remaining student-designated maker spaces on campus after closing the maker space in the engineering building. However, because it lacks a sustainable revenue stream, it may be forced to charge students a $50 fee to use the lab.
“We’re trying to keep this fee as low as possible. This is just us testing what the fee would need to be for the lab to be sustainable,” said the director of the Keeland Design Lab Jason Logan who started his tenure last semester. “But honestly, $50 is probably not enough.”
The lack of funding for Keeland comes from years of relying on a savings fund due to reduced usage during the COVID-19 pandemic, Logan said. The building has not received the support from the university since.
This “rainy day fund” was the only source of revenue outside of students paying to use certain machinery and is almost completely depleted. Logan said that the loss of funding comes from paying for repairs of expensive machinery like laser cutters, fabrication tools and metalworking machines, which students within the college use for their projects.
According to the student council, these financial struggles also came after budget cuts to the College of Architecture, which according to Logan, hindered the college’s ability to pay for the building.
While some student council members and other students understand the need for implementing a fee, they would prefer access to Keeland paid for by tuition and believe that implementing a fee should not be the only solution.
“It should already be in my tuition. I shouldn’t have to pay for anything except materials,” said Keeland student worker Hannah Pevelka. “Putting in a fee is not the best solution, but it is a solution.”
Architecture sophomore Emmelia Ward believes that implementing a student fee will not solve the underlying causes of Keeland’s financial difficulties. Ward has become frustrated with the administration’s lack of support for the College of Architecture and the lack of communication from the administration to address this issue.
“We’re not trying to find the root issues here,” Ward said. “We should be trying to go higher on the University level to see who makes these decisions and make our case for why we need more funds for this building.”
Logan agrees with Ward and hopes to have further conversations with the University administration about the funding for the Keeland building. The student council also agrees that the University has not been communicative, especially since they weren’t informed about the issue until the beginning of this semester.
“We didn’t hear about the funding issue until it was almost too late,” said Student Government Association architecture senator and student council member Tavagoh Cockrell.
According to Logan, charging students a $50 fee to use the design lab is only a proposal that has not been finalized and he is open to other possibilities for the Keeland building to be funded.
“This is part of an open conversation with our students and faculty, and nothing has been implemented yet,” Logan said. “We’re very open to other possibilities for how to sustain the lab. If anyone is interested in talking to me about how we can help support the Keeland, I would love to talk to people.”
