U of T’s campus radio station won’t have to go far when it decamps to its new home at Hart House. CIUT 89.5 FM’s current digs at 91 St. George Street, a Victorian house hugging the Rotman School of Management, will be demolished next year to make way for Rotman’s expansion.
The Governing Council’s planning and budget committee approved the $92 million Rotman’s project, including $204,000 to relocate CIUT, last September. At the time, station manager Brian Burchell had expressed qualms about the uncertain future of CIUT, which was to move to a building near McCaul and College, or to the planned Student Commons.
Now CIUT is set to stay at the heart of campus. Ken Stowar, CIUT’s program director, said the Hart House Board of Stewards passed the motion about six weeks ago. ““The amount of square footage is about the same,” he said of the new space. “But the structure is more advantageous to operating studios in close proximity to each other.”
An in-house memo has CIUT taking over Hart House’s unoccupied warden’s apartment on the second floor and a third of the Map Room on the first floor, said porter David Cunningham. The Map Room will host a glassed-in studio and reception, possibly with live music and a studio audience.
Stoward said that the move, tentatively scheduled for 2009, won’t affect broadcasts. “You cannot be off the air,” he said. “We will have to set up a live studio at Hart House while we’re still at 91 St. George.”
As for the Sexual Education Centre, CIUT’s housemate, it will head to the Student Commons, said Elizabeth Sisam, AVP of campus and facilities planning. The construction timeline for the Student Commons is yet to be set, according to Sisam, who said the planning report will be up for approval in the fall. Though interim housing for the SEC hasn’t been discussed, director Mike Markovich said he isn’t concerned about finding a location before the new year. “We’re certainly curious,” he said. “But we’re not worried.”
