The construction of USI’s Conference Center began recently and roused mixed criticism in response to the amount of trees being taken down.

The $4.7 million construction project will be built behind Reflection Lake.

The center will allow faculty additional space to hold meetings, conferences and events.

Prior to construction, in November 2013, Stephen Helfrich, who was the director of Facilities Operations and Planning at the time, said USI would attempt to avoid disturbing the campus’s natural look.

“We’ll be removing quite a few trees, but also remaining a buffer between the Conference Center and the neighbors to the west. We want to minimize the effect on the neighborhood and leave as many trees as we can,” Helfrich said.

However, neighborhood houses are visible from campus.

Junior history major Maggie Comer said she feels the construction is taking away from the environmental aspect of USI.

Comer, who has taken a hiking class at USI, said the construction of the conference center is hindering the land use options for many students on campus.

The hiking classes and the cross-country team now have to change their travel route due to the deconstruction of the trails, Comer said.

“USI always prides (itself) on the land that it has, so why would we take away that land? Don’t we have enough conference rooms?” Comer said. “I think, if anything, USI should build a parking garage because then it will be useful to the students.”

Program director of the nonprofit organization Keep Evansville Beautiful Mike McGarrah said he has a lot of respect for USI and its efforts toward environmental protection on the campus.

“We understand what USI is doing is needed in order for expansion for the university,” McGarrah said.

Current Facilities Operations and Planning Director James Wolfe said there isn’t an estimate on the amount of trees being torn down because the trees vary in size and shape.

Construction Administrator Gary Burgdorf said every effort was made to save as many trees as possible.

“We planned our construction to specifically avoid the larger trees,” Burgdorf said.

The Conference Center is not seen as an environmental issue to everyone.

Junior history major Alex Martens said although he is excited about the conference rooms being built, he wishes the building could offer more than what we already have on the main campus. This way USI could attract being host to larger events.

“I think it is a good idea to help bring more conferences, especially larger ones. However, I believe that one room or rooms should be larger than Carter Hall. This way, we are not stuck with rooms nobody can do anything with,” Martens said.

USI currently has conference rooms in the University Center, including Carter Hall, which seats 740 people.

The Conference Center will feature rooms that are not as big as Carter Hall, but will be bigger than most conference rooms currently located on campus, Wolfe said.

Construction is scheduled to be completed by July.