Texas State introduced its Master Plan project at an open house by the LBJ Marketplace on Oct. 26.

The Master Plan is a document outlining potential improvements and developments to the university’s campus within the next ten years. Students at the open house provided feedback on what they liked and disliked about the campus.

Texas State has contracted a team from Page Southerland, an architecture and engineering firm, to make the document. In the discovery phase, the team gathers data from students, faculty and staff to determine what the campus does well and what can be improved upon.

“We’re trying to collect as much feedback as we can to understand what those challenges are [that students face],” Corey Rothermel, Page Southerland project manager, said.”[For example, when] it’s flooding you intuitively know you need to avoid [certain] spaces because if you walked through there your shoes and socks are gonna get wet.”

Rothermel said the importance of the smaller improvements contribute to the whole of their project.

After researching the conditions of the campus, the Page team will then come up with potential improvements to the campus and bring them forth in a guide, the Master Plan, Texas State can then act upon that plan.

The Page team began work in August, and will continue roughly through December 2024.

Texas State students and their experiences on the San Marcos and Round Rock campuses are key in the Master Plan.

“At the Round Rock [campus] and then here today we’re trying to get as much student input as possible,” Ryan Losch, the principal of the project, said.

For many students like Jessica Ordonez, an international studies freshman, parking availability is an important issue.

“It takes me forever to find parking, I paid a lot for a pass and I can’t even park in my dorm area, it’s really frusturating,” Ordonez said.

Ace Kolecki, a management freshman, said he hopes Texas State can change the way the university currently classifies parking spaces.

“It feels like the green pass is useless because there isn’t enough [green] parking to go around, whereas there’s always lot of [vacant] red [pass] parking,” Kolecki said.

The Master Plan will research issues Texas State students and faculty feel are important, like parking, accessibility and infrastructure.