Garrett Hall, one of ULM’S oldest buildings, has been demolished. According to ULM’s Master Plan, the building was torn down, “due to its age and spatial redundancy.” Garrett Hall was completed in 1962 and named after one of the developers of the Monroe School System, Franklin Garrett.

The Master Plan is a blueprint of ideas created in 2013 in order to enhance the campus. One of ULM President Nick Bruno’s goals in creating the Master Plan was, “to ensure that our great institution takes every opportunity to improve our already vibrant campus.”

ULM is known for its motto, “the best is on the bayou” and seems to be working hard to reach that goal. In place of Garrett Hall will be a plaza area connected to Sandel Hall. The idea in doing this is to help alleviate foot traffic by students going to and from classes.

The demolition of Garrett Hall has been in the works for a long time now, since 2013 to be exact. A bid was put out to the public by ULM in order to find a company willing to complete the “hall demolition.” The actual demolition took place Wednesday, June 13 and ULM acknowledged the building’s history through a Facebook post.

All of the changes being made to campus are filling students and members of the community with excitement. President Bruno said in his message concerning the Master Plan that many stakeholders were involved in the planning process and that the plan, “is a living document” that can be changed or modified as seen fit.

Garrett Hall isn’t the first or last renovation being made through the Master Plan, either. President Bruno encouraged students, faculty, staff, friends and members of the community to take a look at the plan themselves.

Several of the ideas for ULM include beautifying the campus, adding more open areas to the campus and being as efficient a university as possible. Sandel Hall was one of the first renovations made to the campus and opened Nov. 22, 2016. There are also plans to demolish Stubbs and Strauss Hall in the future to make way for something called the “Great Lawn.”

The entire Master Plan can be easily found on ULM’s website, http://www.ulm.edu/masterplan. The next project on ULM’s to-do-list is uncertain, but one thing is… changes are coming to ULM.