Dec. 28—MAYVILLE, N.D. — The demolition phase of the Old Main renovation project is set to begin soon at Mayville State University, the next step in a project that is expected to go into spring.
The project has hit some big milestones through 2024, said Amber Hill, vice president for business affairs. The most recent has been
abatement
.
“The big milestones for us have been the completion of design, the completion of the relocation, getting everybody moved and settled, and then the abatement was really important,” she said. “The upcoming milestones are demolition, then the beginning of construction.”
A fence will be set up soon to ensure controlled access of Old Main, Mayville State’s
oldest standing building
, and demolition will begin. Hill said the plan is to layer the beginning of construction on different floors, so work on one floor can coincide with demolition on the other. All the starting work will be on the interior, then shift to things like the foundation work and windows come summertime. The end of the project is expected to come around summer 2026.
The university recently held a tour with bidders following abatement and has posted photos of what’s been revealed from the process, Hill said, including some brickwork and other architectural pieces that were “literally hidden within the walls.”
“It’s been amazing,” she said. “There’s a lot of excitement, now that people get to see, touch and feel what’s going to happen and what’s going on.”
The Old Main project is, according to President Brian Van Horn, about 60% of the deferred maintenance on campus, which will be eliminated after the project’s completion. Other deferred maintenance includes some repair and improvements of roofing, HVAC and other areas that Mayville State has been able to work on as well. A larger portion is a campus security project, which includes installing additional security cameras and pedestrian lighting across campus, as well as additional card access for exterior entrances and some major corridors.
“We’re covered by Traill County deputies,” Van Horn said. “We do not have our own security force on our campus, where most campuses have their own fleet force, or at least security force. So, it’s important for us to make sure that we’ve got those components in place as well.”
An increase in enrollment has also been a positive point in the past semester. The fall headcount of 1,134 shows an increase of 8.2% from the fall of 2023. The higher number of enrolled students showed a 10% increase in graduate students, 8% increase in undergraduates and 31% increase in freshmen, with 68% of all students enrolled for the fall semester being from North Dakota.
“We did have a really exciting fall start, a group of really strong students,” said Luke Schultheis, interim vice president for enrollment management. “They’ve been working really hard, both academically as well as extracurricularly, athletically.”
Student events the past semester have been very well attended, he said, as well as activities in the community to further cement the relationships between the campus and community residents. He and the enrollment team anticipate growth for the next semester from spring 2024’s census of 951, but it’s not clear yet exactly how many students will be enrolled for spring 2025. Some of that number depends on whether students want to transfer following fall finals.
“It’s a very fluid thing,” he said. “Generally speaking, the bulk of new students who come to an institution in spring are students who transfer from other institutions, primarily the two-year colleges. And generally speaking, those students make that decision … once they’ve kind of done their finals, they know they’ve kind of completed things in a good manner. So, we’re going to have a flurry of activity over the next several weeks. But, by all indications, it’s looking like we’re going to have a strong start.
