By Elliott Nace | Staff Writer
Baylor student government passed a $130,000 bill to renovate the Sid Richardson Building during its March 27 senate meeting. The bill, which is the largest that student government has passed this academic year, aims to set into motion a renovation that provides students with updated study spaces featuring new furniture, redone carpet and repainted walls, which will be completed over the summer ahead of the fall 2025 semester.
Oak Hills, Calif., sophomore senator and current Academic Affairs Committee Chair Jaclyn Ebeling explained that the project’s quick timeline intends to minimize disruptions of classes. Existing furniture within the Sid Richardson Building’s study spaces, such as chairs and coffee tables, will be rehoused elsewhere on campus.
“We are replacing [the existing furniture] with study tables with chairs, outlets and TVs as well — and then replacing the carpet, because right now in Sid Rich on the floor, it’s a space of carpet, a space of tile and then a space of carpet, so it’ll all be carpet so that it can create a more uniform look,” she said.
Pflugerville junior and Student Body Internal Vice President Landon Self said the bill originally sought to construct a study space in the building’s outdoor courtyard, but became more involved following the 2024 introduction of TDIndustries as the university’s new campus Facilities Services partners.
“As we got new grounds people and there were new plans coming out, it kind of shifted to be more of an indoor study space,” he said. “And then after a lot of work and a lot of conversations with different stakeholders, we were able to produce the bill this year, and Jaclyn led her committee in doing it.”
Self, who was Academic Affairs Committee chair last year, worked alongside Ebeling to bring the bill to fruition. Ebeling said funding for the bill came from both the Student Government Allocation Fund and contributions from partners such as H-E-B, the Paul L. Foster Success Center and The Store helped fund the bill in order to improve the Sid Richardson Building’s accommodations for students who are food insecure.
“We started the project last year, and then because I became Academic Affairs Committee chair this year, I took the project and ran with it, leading us to where we are now,” she said. “It ended up being a $130,000 project, with $60,000 of it being from student government.”
According to Self, the need for more indoor spaces on campus incentivized student government to invest in both decorative renovations and the replacement of outdated furniture in the Sid Richardson Building. He also went on and said that the new space intends to open up space within campus hotspots, such as the Moody Memorial Library, during busy hours throughout the week.
“Every student goes through Sid Rich at some point throughout their Baylor journey, and we thought it would be really cool for student government to take initiative and renovate a study space that can be more conducive and more effective for students to learn and study as a group,” he said.
Self mentioned that the bill proposed by Academic Affairs first arrived at the desks of the Finance Committee and the Campus Improvements and Affairs Committee. Although the latter initially rejected the bill, citing the significant allocation and possibility of redistributing these funds elsewhere, Ebeling led an appeal that culminated in the bill’s eventual passing with over 30 votes in favor and three against.
“Some of the questions that came up were, ‘What exactly are we funding? What exactly is this fund going to?’” he said. “We were able to answer that with, ‘We’re bringing in new furniture. We’re renovating the carpet, and we’re also fixing up some of the paint on the walls.’ That’s what we’re working on, and it was received well. The senate voted yes, and it was a really exciting process.”
Ebeling said the passing of this bill will bring renewed interest to one of Baylor’s less-developed yet still heavily trafficked academic buildings, as well as add variety to students’ study options on campus.
“There’s a lot of need on campus for more spaces for students, and so this adds one,” she said. “3,000 students are in Sid Richardson alone every single week, and that’s not including any of the departments that are housed in Sid Rich. It’s a space that needs to be reformed in the heart of campus.”
