As faculty, staff and students get reacquainted with the Indiana University Bloomington campus this fall, they may notice some changes. Here is a look at some of them:

Dining options

Bookmarket Eatery has been converted to an all-you-care-to-eat venue starting this fall semester. Photo by Peyton Connor, Auxiliary Business Services Marketing Bookmarket Eatery, on the ground floor of the Herman B Wells Library, has been converted to an all-you-care-to-eat venue in response to the closing of the dining hall at Joseph A. Wright Quadrangle. For those not on a meal plan, Bookmarket will accept payment via CrimsonCard and credit cards.

The Read Café in Read Hall will reopen as a carryout location for the all-you-care-to-eat plan.

The Globe will open at Eigenmann Hall for dinner during the week. It will serve weekday lunch at the Godfrey Graduate and Education Center, and Sushi King poke will be added to the offerings at the Hodge Hall Campus Café.

A new return container program will be piloted at Collins Living-Learning Center. Students can opt in by scanning the bar code on a reusable carry-out container that they then return to bins, where they will be marked “returned” and washed before being reused.

Road closures

Sections of Dunn and 17th streets in Bloomington will see intermittent lane restrictions and sidewalk closures to allow installation of new Duke Energy transmission poles through Dec. 31.

The Bloomington Reliability Project, now in its second phase, is constructing a new transmission line to connect three Duke substations at Rogers Street, 11th Street and Dunn Street, and provide greater service reliability.

Faculty Council leadership

The Bloomington Faculty Council changed leadership July 1, with Colin Johnson taking over as president for the 2023-24 school year. Johnson is an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Gender Studies.

Cathrine Reck, the 2022-23 president and a clinical professor in the College’s Department of Chemistry, is now past-president and will chair the Long-Range Planning Committee. Reck will focus on ideas and proposals that came up during the planning stages of IU Bloomington 2030 strategic planning.

Danielle DeSawal, a clinical professor in the School of Education who served as council secretary last year, is president-elect; she will become president of the faculty in July 2024.

The Bloomington Faculty Council will have a town hall for faculty from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Sept. 12 in Whittenberger Auditorium. The purpose is to hear from constituents and formulate the council’s agenda for the year, which will be critical to working on policy-related implementation of the Bloomington strategic plan.

Wright Quad renovations

Wright Quad, including its dining hall, is closed for renovations. Photo by Chaz Mottinger, Indiana University. Wright Quadrangle, a 1,052-bed student housing facility that opened in 1949 on the Bloomington campus, is closed for renovations. The project began in March 2023, and the building will reopen for students starting fall semester 2025.

It will upgrade building and life safety systems throughout the complex, including the installation of central air conditioning, plus new electrical, plumbing, security, network connectivity and fire protection systems.

Student rooms, lounges and restrooms will be updated, windows replaced in the residential wings and exterior masonry repaired. Accessibility improvements will include installation of a new elevator in the northeast wing.

Restroom updates

Restrooms on all campuses are evaluated annually and scheduled in phases for renovation. This summer in Bloomington, four gendered multi-stall restrooms were renovated and four new all-gender restrooms were created.

Locations for new all-gender restrooms were informed by recommendations provided in the All-Gender Restroom Inclusion Project Report produced by the Queer Student Union. On the first floor of the Indiana Memorial Union, two gendered, multi-stall restrooms were renovated and two new all-gender restrooms created. In the Frances Morgan Swain Student Building, two gendered, multi-stall restrooms on the first floor were renovated. On the basement level of Lindley Hall, two new all-gender restrooms were created.

Other work

The Ostrom Workshop created an outdoor learning space dedicated to Vincent and Elinor “Lin” Ostrom to commemorate the workshop’s 50th anniversary. The project involved building a patio and a 16- by-24-foot pavilion, which will be unveiled during a grand opening Sept. 6.

The Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center and Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center both had entry plazas, pavers and sidewalks replaced.

Oldest tree marker

In front of the IMU at the east end of Dunn Meadow stands the oldest tree on the Bloomington campus. The large bur oak is estimated at more than 180 years old, predating IU’s oldest buildings.

Metal structural posts were installed during the summer to support the largest limbs. A plaque installed by the tree explains the posts and includes a QR code that takes readers to the Woodland Campus website for more information.