Putting the 'student' in student center

By our opinion

It's hard to complain when students are being offered a new multi-million dollar space for offices and a venue for shows.

However, how useful can the new building be if students are unhappy about its design?

For a university to effectively serve its community, it should take the needs of its students to heart. In planning the new student center and offices for Activities Programming Board, Associated Students and Santa Clara Community Action Program, the concerns of these organizations' student leaders should be taken seriously.

Though these leaders have sat down with administrative planners, there is still discontent among the student leaders, which begs the question, how much student input is really considered?

Let it be understood, a new student building will drastically benefit students in need of performance space. Currently, clubs and organizations often struggle to find venues for their events. Renting Mayer Theater is expensive, and if you have ever been to a show in the California Mission Room, you know how the dim lighting and awkwardly-placed columns take away from the performance. After the center is completed, students will have a free space for their various events.

However, as it stands now, some of the leaders of the student organizations set to move into the new building are not satisfied. This dissatisfaction stems from the layout of the building's office space.

The student center's design puts all three groups in an open space with cubicles. This proposed layout ignores the fact that they have different needs.

The concerned student leaders worry that this will change the environment of their respective groups.

Each organization provides our campus with something different, and each organization requires a slightly different type of space.

For instance, AS may need a more formal place to host meetings with senate representatives, but also somewhere accessible where students can feel comfortable expressing concerns.

APB, on the other hand, will need a private space where it can keep important contracts and discuss upcoming concerts that have not been made public.

The SCCAP office, known as a place where students can take a load off on comfortable couches under hanging peace flags, may lose its inviting atmosphere.

APB, AS and SCCAP need their own private offices to fulfill their respective missions, as they do now. Imagine the chaos of a SCCAP open house during an AS meeting.

Administrators say that students are involved in the planning, but we question what they define as involvement. Is it enough to have student leaders attending meetings in which the plans are discussed?

The student leaders of these organizations know their respective needs better than anyone, and these needs should receive priority when planning the building's layout.

Having students present at planning discussions should be more than a mere formality. We would hope that administrators will listen to concerns of student leaders.

For now, we're left asking what will happen when a student leader objects to future plans for his or her organization.

This question remains unanswered.