With many of the smaller details beginning to fall into place, plans are progressing for the new University Center, which is slated for completion in the summer of 2009. The latest developments include a tentative layout of the interior areas and distribution of space to the various groups that will occupy the building.

The new Center will span approximately 90,000 square feet and occupy the location where Prince Hall currently stands. It will be home to myriad groups and multi-purpose spaces. Jill Carnaghi, assistant vice chancellor for students, described three of the spatial zones in the plans for the new building.

“The western [zone] on the first and second floor is Campus Life: it will be student groups, Student Union, student programming groups, community service, the Rodriguez program, and Greek Life.the middle part is a lot of common area where students can lounge, hang out, eat, and then the southeast pod is the Career Center,” said Carnaghi.

David Ross, Freshman Class Council president, was enthusiastic about the plans and felt that the Student Union (SU) space in the new Center will be an improvement over their current space.

“I like [the new space that Student Union will receive] because it will be easy to organize, especially when planning events,” said Ross. “It will be better when everything is consolidated.”

Ross identified problems with the current setup in which class council executives keep their files and information in their own rooms because there is no central office. In the current setup, only SU’s executive officers have their own offices.

The University Center’s third floor will consist of student media groups, including Student Life, WUTV and KWUR, as well as facilities for the Arts & Sciences graduate school.

Although plans for the exact location of facilities for graduate students within the new Center are tentative, according to James McLeod, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, accommodating undergraduate and graduate students in the same building makes sense.

“We want the University Center to be welcoming to all of our students – undergraduates and graduates,” said McLeod. “We want faculty and staff to be comfortable coming in and using the space, relaxing there, eating there, meeting there. Undergraduates have a special relationship with campus, which is different [from that of graduate students]. They [undergraduates] live on campus, and this is their home, and we recognize that. But the University Center should be for everyone.”

Not all groups are happy with the current space that has been assigned to them. One specific concern mentioned by Chris Grabau, coordinator of student media groups, was WUTV and KWUR’s need for soundproof studios.

According to Grabau, the plans for the Center are still in their infancy, and the architects want to work with the students to alleviate any concerns.

“I think it’s been encouraging to see the groups actually inserting their own input into what they want to see in the building and being articulate as to what their needs are,” said Grabau.

In addition to the indoor spaces, Carnaghi is enthusiastic about the building’s exterior design and its relation to the outdoor environment. There will be a new quadrangle in the northeast corner, where the University Center is adjacent to Umrath. Part of the quadrangle will have seating for students to eat or socialize.

Eateries will fill a large segment of the first floor. The administration is planning several different food areas which will replace the food court in Mallinckrodt. The new dining area will have multiple eating stations in one area, a bistro in another, and a caf‚ in a third area.

The food court will seat approximately 450 students, 100 more than Mallinckrodt holds. The bistro will offer additional outdoor seating, as well as waited dining. It will also serve alcohol, including wine and beer.

Carnaghi described the first-floor eating area as very open, while at the same time having different zones. This would allow students seeking a quiet area to find their own private space, whereas other students can find a more energetic, public space near the food court.

According to Carnaghi, one of the distinguishing aspects of the University Center will be the reduction of individual group offices. Whereas many student organizations currently have their own offices and meeting areas, the University Center will have group meeting rooms which will be available for use by all groups in addition to individual offices.

These common spaces include a business center in which students will be able to fax documents, make copies, and print flyers. There will also be a “project room” on the second floor where groups can make banners or engage in other creative activities.

Carnaghi emphasized the value of a system in which students who come to the area looking for one organization can discover a different one that they may not have known about otherwise.

After workers demolish Prince Hall this summer, work will commence on the parking garage beneath the Center. The parking garage, which is scheduled to be completed before construction on the Center begins, will have a capacity of about 400 cars.

Two stairwells and an elevator will lead from the garage up to the first floor. Additionally, there will be a tunnel connecting the underground garage with Mallinckrodt so that food services can still use the Mallinckrodt service entrance.

In addition to providing much-needed parking spaces, the garage will provide a location in which visitors can park and be closer to the center of campus than the current lots allow.

Only the super-seniors of the current freshman class, however, will be able to enjoy the University Center’s benefits – construction is not slated for completion until the summer of 2009. Construction on the underground garage is scheduled to commence this summer, while construction on the Center itself is slated to begin in the summer of 2007.

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