Coffey Hall “highly likely” to be Demolished Spring 2027 

On Feb. 2, College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) department heads received an email from Provost Douglas Woods and CAS Dean Peter Schraeder detailing plans to have Coffey Hall demolished in the spring 2027 semester to make way for a new student welcome center.

Currently, the political science, sociology and psychology majors house faculty in Coffey, where students can attend office hours and where the psychology department has research lab space. While the demolition plans for the building aren’t official, they’re “highly likely,” according to political science Department Chair Molly Melin, Ph.D., who said it’s what was told to her and the other department chairs. 

If the plans go through, political science and sociology faculty would be relocated this summer to offices on the 6300 block of North Broadway, in offices above Loyola’s Flex Lab, according to Melin. Psychology would be moved to space in Granada Center over the winter break of the 2026-2027 academic year to account for lab space needs.

After receiving the Feb. 2 email, Melin sent an email to other political science faculty to see how they felt about the plans. She said the general concern expressed was it would be harder for faculty to interact with students outside of the classroom, which she said is “not the point of a liberal arts education.”

“It feels like we’re being put into a closet,” Melin said.

Associate Professor of International Relations Sarah Maxey, Ph.D., said she’s concerned with the outlook of the university spending millions of dollars to tear up a building which is the home of student research labs, dozens of majors, three thriving departments and build administrative offices in place of it, especially as there’s not a clear timeline or plan which takes student and faculty needs into consideration.

“We don’t actually have clear information about how that’s going to work yet, and time is close,” Maxey said.

Melin said she and other faculty weren’t given a floor plan, as the space they’re proposed to move to isn’t a current Loyola building, though each CAS department would be given the opportunity to provide input on one. 

“We identify in the campus plan that Coffey Hall is a facility that — due to an assessment of its long-term feasibility for us — it would likely be demolished and that it would create an opportunity for us to develop more green space for a south campus quad,” Henning said. “It does also, though, create space for a new facility.”

As of March 10, the university is still in the planning stages for a new state of the art welcome center that could be located on some portion of the site, according to Henning. The project would need to go before the board of trustees for their approval. If granted, the project would require demolition and new construction, which would likely take 18 to 24 months to complete.

Maxey is running undergraduate summer research programs and doesn’t yet know if she’ll be afforded the space to meet with students over the summer.

“We’re concerned about what it means to be asking majors and minors to come off campus to meet with faculty in the space that may not be finished by the time classes start in the fall, and probably, almost certainly, won’t be finished by the time research opportunities are starting in the summer,” Maxey said.

It’s already hard to convince students to come to office hours, according to Melin. Additionally, it’s unclear if any professors would lose space in the relocation. The political science department would be given one floor, when there’s already a “major office crunch” in Coffey.

The uncertainty with office space comes amidst concerns of the impending demographic cliff — anticipated low enrollment for the 2026-2027 academic year, as a result of low birth rates due to the Great Recession, The Phoenix previously reported. 

The cliff was mentioned as a national concern in CFO Wayne Magdziarz’s financial town halls, according to Melin. Magdziarz said in town halls that Loyola would look to build its brand with campus planning projects to attract more students.

Henning said, as pointed out in the financial town halls, borrowing would help accomplish projects in the campus plan. Henning said the planning team looks at internal sources of funds within their capital budget. She said the hope is the projects will inspire the interest of donors and philanthropists for funding.

Additionally, Magdziarz brought up the possibility of not giving raises to the faculty, according to Melin. She said in past years, raises have only been 2%, not keeping up with inflation.

“The thought that the first thing to cut was faculty raises, and yet we’re building unnecessary new buildings, felt very out of sync with the picture admin is painting about how we need to spend our money,” Melin said.

Coffey originally opened in 1962 as a dormitory for students of Mundelein College and was incorporated into Loyola in 1991. Melin said Wayne told her the renovation of Coffey and the demolition of Damen Hall, which occurred in 2010, cost $10 million.

“It feels like the university and administrators are in panic mode right now because of the demographic cliff and economic uncertainty facing higher education, so they’re trying everything and hoping something works,” Melin said. 

The plans to have Coffey — along with the Sullivan Center for Student and Career Services — demolished aren’t new, and have been mentioned in Campus Planning meetings for several years now, The Phoenix previously reported. 

At the most recent campus planning meeting, it was said Coffey would be torn down at some point — then, though, it was said a quad would take its place, according to Rosenblatt. Henning confirmed some green space would be left, and the welcome center would be built on the remaining space of the site.

As for where the funding will come from, Magdziarz wrote in an email to The Phoenix that the support would come from a combination of three different sources — university capital, borrowing and gifts from donors, though the full details would come in the next 12-14 months if the project is approved.

“I’m all for Loyola growing and putting its best foot forward and recruiting students, but I think that the way we do that is by recognizing that our students are smart, purpose-driven people who want the substance of a good education and not something flashy,” Maxey said.

Melin and Maxey expressed concerns over the limited classroom space currently facing the university.

“If they’re going to build, let’s build more classroom spaces, that’s always a crunch,” Melin said. “Let’s commit to serving the students already at Loyola, not the ones who come for an afternoon.”

Over winter break, Melin was told by the financial aid office to hold off on scheduling classes for the 2026-2027 academic year until the university knew what the enrollment numbers were. Melin can see the projected number of students applying for political science through “funnel numbers.” According to those numbers, the political science major is “way up,” and one of the only majors at Loyola which has growing numbers.

“Which I think is also out of line for kicking us off campus,” Melin said. “If we have more students, we should be in the middle of it.”

Third-year sociology major Tia Saxton said she goes to Coffey for office hours about twice a semester.

“I think Sullivan is great,” Saxton said. “It might be a little ugly on the outside, but I don’t think we need a whole new center.I feel like Sullivan has been great for the admissions office. I remember when I toured Loyola and walked into Sullivan, I didn’t feel unwelcome there. It’s nice.

Second-year political science major Quinton Palmer said he heard of the plans to demolish from faculty, who mentioned the information in two of his classes. He said he goes to office hours in Coffey every third week.

“That area of campus is a little clunky in terms of, like, navigating around Mundelein and Coffey, so I guess if it improves that, I’d be happy about it,” Palmer said. “But then again, I’ll be graduated by that time, so it just seems like a lot of hassle, especially considering that the building isn’t exactly falling apart.”

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article didn’t identify the whereabouts for the relocation of the psychology department. The article was updated March 11, 2026 to include the relocation site, which is space in Granada Center.