University President Barbara Snyder spoke at the Sept. 16 USG meeting about upcoming plans to expand student opportunities at Case Western Reserve University.

As announced at the OK Go concert on Aug. 24, Snyder reiterated that CWRU has surpassed its fundraising campaign goal two years early by raising over $1 billion, and the goal has now been raised to $1.5 billion. The goal is to raise as much money as possible for student scholarships, since it is getting increasingly difficult for some people to afford tuition.

Snyder also said that the university is in the middle of a major master space planning effort, bringing consultants to campus to meet with various student groups and discuss preliminary findings. There will be two open forums hosted on Sept. 30 where students can voice their opinions on the issue.

Snyder also gave updates on the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center, a new building that is taking over part of the space previously occupied by the Temple-Tifereth Israel. She said that they are working on tearing down part of the existing building and adding a proscenium theater along with a black box theater.

The university is also considering building a connecting walkway between the Tinkham Veale University Center and the Performing Arts Center. They hosted a design competition, and Snyder said that the design will be revealed soon.

Another update was on the plan to create a new health science campus. The new campus will be a collaboration between the School of Medicine, School of Dental Medicine, the Nursing School and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.

“We hear all the time how health care has to be provided in teams and by professionals, and there can’t be a hierarchy like there used to be,” said Snyder. “We’ve decided instead of educating the students separately like everybody does, we can do a lot better by preparing them to work in teams from day one on campus.”