re(in)novation – Big Changes Ahead for the Student Center
If you've participated in FASET, Family Weekend, or one of the hundreds of other events that happen in and around the Student Center, you know that it is one of the busiest and most important places on campus. The Student Center is the central gathering place for the campus and we need to renovate and expand! Here's why:
-The original building, completed in 1970, was intended for a campus of 7,000 students. Now with 23,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, the building's space is far short of what we need.
-17,000 people walk through the building every day.
-The building hosts 6,781 room reservations a year (roughly 650 per room per year).
-The Student Center Team stages more than 100 programs each year for the campus community, in addition to the hundreds of other campus events hosted within our walls.
-The Student Center contains just six office spaces to support more than 400 student organizations on campus.
We know it's time to not just renovate or expand the building, but also to think innovatively about how we could provide the essential services this campus needs in a reimagined space. Over the past two years the Student Center has polled and talked with students about what the role of a new building should be. We know from that research that our students need more opportunities and places to gather together, recharge themselves, to build friendships, to collaborate with one another, and to grow as leaders. Meeting the needs of our diverse and extraordinary student body means finding an innovative approach to facility space and services. We look forward to seeing how this project will create the next great hub for the campus community!
The first step in moving the re(in)novation project forward is to secure funding. In the coming months the Student Center will ask the student body to vote on a referendum instituting a new fee to fund part of the project. More details will be announced about the referendum and the project as a whole in late January and February, with the student vote happening March 9-16. If you would like to find out more about the project, please visit reinnovation.studentcenter.gatech.edu. Stay tuned for more information about the exciting changes taking place!