Layout for new center still under discussion

By Tom Sullivan

While plans for the new student center continue to be made, some student leaders are expressing discontent about the proposed setup of the building.

The building is set to break ground this spring in what is now Alumni Park across from Leavey Center. It will be home to offices for several student organizations, including Activities Programming Board, Associated Students and Santa Clara Community Action Program.

"There's two separate buildings," said Jeanne Rosenberger, vice provost for student life. "The other building will be used as athletic facilities for the soccer teams." The student event building will have 6,000 square feet of open space on the first floor. The second floor will house offices for APB, AS and SCCAP, she said.

"There's storage, there's a poster-making area, there's a common reception area, a break area and a second-floor patio," Rosenberger said.

Lindsey Dunn, director of SCCAP, said she thought her organization was not given a voice in discussions about the project and was not provided with the amount of space that is necessary for SCCAP.

Some of the problems revolved around the fact that SCCAP was initially provided about half of the square footage they currently occupy, and although that has been expanded since initial plans were laid out, it is still not equivalent.

"We have one of the largest staffs, and we were given the smallest office spaces, so after a few tries I managed to convince the administration that we needed a bigger space," she said. "So now we have a space that is a little bit smaller than the one we have now, but it's manageable."

Another concern among student organizations involved privacy because they will move from separate offices to cubicles, which will give them more of a corporate feel.

Courtney Jordan, director of APB, said, "Our issue has always been privacy and having the closed door and closed windows. We have cash in our office from ticket sales. A lot of our contract negotiations are really confidential so being able to lock a door and close windows is something that we find critical in our day to day work that we do."

Contract negotiations with different artists can sometimes fall through, she said.

"You don't want to get people's hopes up having them find out about an artist and then potentially have that artist back out," Jordan said.

Chris Freeburg, AS senate chair, said he believed that space and accessibility were dealt with in an appropriate manner.

"The heads of APB, AS and SCCAP were all in a preliminary meeting, and Rachel Manfre, the student president, was in most of the summer meetings as well," he said.

"There were more concerns with SCCAP's space and APB's space, but the directors of those organizations were involved as well," he added.

Rosenberger said having a cubicle setup would offer some upsides.

"There's a number of reasons the building is designed as an open space concept. Keeping costs in mind, heating would be less expensive with the current setup," she said. "We don't want to block the natural light that will fill this building."

Manfre, AS student body president, said she is excited about the prospect of a new office for her organization.

"To be perfectly honest, all three organizations were very excited about the opportunity to have this building," she said. "This is a once in a lifetime chance that we are getting this gift from donors specifically for student organizations."

Freeburg said he is satisfied with the allocation of space in the plans for the building.

Compromise has been key to try and accommodate each organization's needs, and administrators and students will continue to work through their differences hoping to create a building made specifically for student use.

"We continue to have design meetings every Friday morning for the building, and we will continue that for at least the next four months," said Rosenberger. "As we move forward, it's going to take some trust and compromise."

The target date for completion of the center is January of 2010.

Contact Tom Sullivan at (408) 554-4546 or tsullivan@scu.edu.