The space is already identified. It is the one a stone’s throw from the sugar factory chimney where the preparatory excavation was carried out, destined to house, within the next 18 months (therefore in 2025), the 9,750 square meters of the new headquarters of the Faculty of Psychology, which will therefore join to the university campus leaving the premises in the train station area.
The rector of the University of Bologna Giovanni Molari and the mayor Enzo Lattuca cut the ribbon on the construction site yesterday morning: the overall cost of the intervention was quantified at 20 million euros, 7 of which were made available by the municipal administration of Cesena, which also offered the land on which the complex will be built free of charge for 99 years, destined to be frequented daily by around 2,000 people including teachers, researchers, students and technical-administrative staff. “We have always rolled out the red carpet for the university – commented the mayor Enzo Lattuca – by making resources and spaces available, strongly believing in a path that began in 1989 and which has now reached a fundamental point, which almost represents the closure of a circle, if only around this segment of the neighborhood. Once the intervention is completed, the only area in which building space will remain will be the one to the south of the chimney of the former sugar factory. It is a privately owned sector, in relation in any case we hope for the creation of structures and services dedicated to students, such as a canteen or other accommodation”. Returning to the new building, the structure, which will also be built using prefabricated blocks, will externally reflect the architecture that characterizes the area, with exposed bricks on the lower level. “In the six years of my mandate – commented the president of the Cesena campus Massimo Cicognani – we have witnessed strong growth: enrollments have grown from 1,300 to around 1,600 with repercussions on enrollments which now exceed 5,000 compared to 4,700 before A notable impact, in relation to which the creation of the new spaces certainly played an important role.” Satisfaction also on the part of the rector Molari: “Today is a great moment. Corroborated all the more by the 360-degree growth of our university. I don’t like international rankings and classifications of faculties. There are some parameters, such as for example the ratio between number of teachers and students, which in our latitudes is inevitably penalizing. Without forgetting the fact that the main global references are mostly private and enjoy superior funding, and the numbers prove us right, in two essential sectors: that of internationalization and that of relations with companies from an employment perspective”.
When the new building is completed, all the structures now located in the station area will be moved inside: “The spaces that will be freed – Lattuca concluded – will still partly remain available to the university, for example with a view to opening of new degree courses. Both areas will see major changes linked to ‘good attendance’. It is already happening in the sugar factory, it will happen at the station. This is the virtuous way of working on the city of the future”.
