Construction in Madison during the summer has always been a pain, but here at Madison College  Truax campus it will continue into the fall. Returning students will remember last semester’s dust from tearing apart the hallways and the migration of the cafeteria to a smaller, more temporary spot while construction for the new culinary, baking, decorative arts and student services center was under way. Most of that work was done on a smaller scale, but the 2016-17 school year will see sizable changes and affect students much more.

First, foot traffic for students on the first floor will change and shift slightly, but there will be signs posted to help students find their way. Staff and other faculty will be able to help out for those who get lost, all a student needs to do is ask.

For those needing Student Services, those offices have been temporarily moved upstairs. The main office is located in room B2020 and will remain there until December 2017. Those services will include Student Life, Student Activities as well as picking up bus passes and One Cards.

The Transfer Center has been moved as well. It will now be located on the third floor in room B3253 for the entirety of the 2016-17 school year.

Finally, the cafeteria will be closed the 2016-17 fall semester. There will be several locations around the school where students can get food. The new cafeteria will be open for the spring semester.

A map of the areas that are closed off for reconstruction is located on a wall in the main hallway as well as a list of what’s closed and where they have been moved to.

Construction started in August 2015 to expand the college’s culinary department as well as expanding the barber-cosmetology salon and offices for a new Clarion broadcasting department.

The culinary expansion has been the main focus of this construction project and Chef Paul Short, an instructor in the program, is passionate about it.

“The culinary renovation is important to the program because of the industry needs and the needs of our incoming students,” Short said in a recent email interview.

According to Short, places in Madison like Epic and the University of Wisconsin-Madison are in need of cooks who know food prep and can handle a high volume of people. Epic serves as many as 7,000 people in a day.

“The culinary program and facilities in the past kept us from doing a better job with our students; we faced difficult teaching environments that most instructors in other programs would not have tolerated,” Short went on to say.

There were issues with people needing to walk through their classes mid-lecture and equipment not being up to par, with the expansion that will all change.

“We will now have opportunities for students who are seeking world-class culinary education at an affordable cost that makes sense,” Short said. “The new space will not only have us on the map in Wisconsin but will also have us on the map nationally for those seeking culinary education.”

Construction on campus is scheduled to be complete before the start of the Fall 2017 semester.