For residents of the southern part of Princeton’s campus, the campus construction is unlikely to subside any time soon.
The University announced that the opening of Hobson College (on the site of the former First College) will be pushed back to 2027 from its originally scheduled 2026 opening date. Further, the University announced that Poe Field, a popular gathering spot for students, will be under construction starting after Reunions 2023 and is expected to take “more than a year.”
Some students and student groups have expressed concerns regarding the timing and scope of the projects.
The Poe Field project, which will put Poe Field under renovation for at least three semesters, is part of the University’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2046.
In an email to The Daily Princetonian regarding the Poe Field project, University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss wrote, “the construction will include a previously approved underground storm-water detention system required to support the storm-water design for the current University Health Services project (due to be completed by winter 2025), and for the upcoming Schmidt Hall project (anticipated start of summer 2025).”
Some club sports teams are concerned about the closure of Poe Field. The club Ultimate Frisbee team uses Poe Field as a practice location and considers the central location of Poe Field as a benefit during recruitment.
“A big chunk of our incoming class every year is people who have never played Ultimate before,” says Alex Baroody ’23, one of the captains of Princeton Ultimate Frisbee. With construction on Poe Field, Baroody says that it will be “a lot harder for us to get new people to join our club … Just having those pickup games be visible brought a lot of our team to the game of Ultimate.”
Hotchkiss noted that it “is not feasible” to only have construction on Poe Field over the summer, and that “it is less impactful to complete the construction consecutively in one phase instead of breaking it up over multiple summers or stages.”
He added that the University “understand[s] that this work will impact many groups on campus who currently use Poe Field, as well as students and staff who will live in the dorms that surround Poe Field this summer and the next academic year.” He stated that the University will “provide regular updates regarding the construction and related impact, but also provide information on alternate temporary locations for club, pickup sports, and other recreation.”
Many students living in the new colleges cross Poe Field to get to the rest of campus. Zach Lee ’26, the Communications Lead for Yeh College Council, is concerned that with the construction of Poe Field, students of the nearby residential colleges are losing an “integral location” where they have been able to “relax, picnic, and play sports.”
Lee is a contributing News and podcast writer for the ‘Prince.’
“The construction on Poe Field will definitely make this challenging for students to continue in the future or may even possibly stop these activities for good until construction has cleared,” Lee said.
With the opening of Hobson delayed, construction will last longer at the site just north of Poe Field. According to Hotchkiss, this delay is a result of the fact that “several of the First College dorms that encompass the Hobson site were used as temporary housing assignments during the fall semester when move-in for a portion of Yeh and NCW residents was delayed.” Accordingly, construction did not begin on schedule.
Hotchkiss confirmed that all “housing or impacted buildings [will be] notified [of construction] and asked to send messages to residents or building occupants that will be directly impacted.”
Residents of Scully Hall will live between the Poe field construction and the ongoing construction of Hobson College. Hannah Even ’25, a future resident of Scully Hall, was “not excited about” being surrounded by construction and the early start time of construction noise, particularly on the weekends.
According to Hotchkiss, campus construction will begin at “7 a.m. during weekdays and 8 a.m. on Saturdays.”
Despite the delay in opening Hobson, the University does not expect any delay in its implementation of the four-year expansion plan to increase Princeton’s undergraduate student body by 500 students. Hotchkiss noted that “the introduction of NCW and Yeh provides the swing space” that is needed to stay on target with the expansion of the student body.
Madeleine Lebeau is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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