The space in the University of Idaho Commons being used as offices for the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences will continue to be used as a swing space as other offices undergo renovations, despite student’s hopes to use it as a student lounge.
Steven Devine | Argonaut
Veteran Adviser Dan Button, left, and College Adviser Kris Roby stand inside the offices of the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences Monday afternoon. The offices will soon move back to the original location in July.
The UI Space Use Committee voted unanimously to deny the request to allocate the space as a student lounge.
ASUI Commons and Union Board Chair Cody Earl said when the Commons and Union Administration Board found out CLASS was leaving they pursued the idea of using the space for a student lounge.
He said he worked with ASUI Senator and President-Elect Max Cowan two semesters ago to gather data about what the students wanted the space to be used for.
“Overwhelmingly the students wanted some sort of space where they could have a social lounge venue with some sort of food and entertainment aspect built into it,” Earl said. “We put the input of the 266 students who responded to the survey to come up with this grand plan of how to use the space.”
Earl said they wanted to include TVs and a coffee house entertainment stage such as bands or poetry. He said they were looking to bring Jamba Juice because students showed interest.
He said they wanted it to be similar to Washington State University’s Compton Union Building lounge, but on a smaller scale.
Cowan said the Commons and Union Administration were in favor of the idea and helped submit a space request form.
“The way that the university works is that any open space that is going to be allocated has to be seen by the Space Use Committee,” he said. “They are essentially a group of administrators who oversee the allocation of space because ultimately the state and the university consider any building that is owned by the university to have the primary goal of meeting the university’s needs.”
Cowan said when the administrators saw the request, they decided they were not going to allocate that space as a student lounge.
Assistant Vice-President of Facilities Brian Johnson said the committee is made up of the university’s four vice-presidents and the executive director of budget and planning. He said while he was not in on the decision making process, he was tapped to serve as the messenger. He said as he understands that the committee doesn’t yet know what they will do with the space and are consequently hesitant to commit to set plans.
Johnson said the committee mentioned they want to remodel the College of Education Building, which would displace employees, and they had interest as using the space in the Commons for swing space during the remodels.
Johnson said the remodel could take up to two years, but they don’t yet have a start date because the university doesn’t have funding for the project lined up yet. He said the administration doesn’t know what to do with the space in the meantime.
“The only thing that could go in there would have to be able to be very temporary because everything is still kind of up in air,” Johnson said.
Earl said he was unsatisfied with the Committee’s informal response, which came in the form of an email from Johnson.
“I thought it was unprofessional and disrespectful to one of their students. Granted they are administration and probably have bigger things on their plate than a student lounge,” Earl said. “But when you are representing the students it would be nice to give them some sort of feedback as to any thing else we could do. I still have yet to hear anything from anyone on the committee.”
Earl said he thinks the space being used as a lounge makes a lot of sense because the current Overlook Lounge is noisy and interrupts interviews in the Career Center.
“When companies like Boeing come in and interview students for potential jobs it is kind of distracting to have a pool ball smacking around in the background,” Earl said. “The idea would be to move this area downstairs so the Career Center would be the place you can go in your suit and tie and have a more formal interview. The Overlook Lounge would become more of a quiet study space as well, and downstairs could be more of a place to hang out and be loud.”
Earl said he felt the lack of response showed the administration’s willingness to disregard the voice of the students.
“I’m graduating so it isn’t the end of the world for me but I want to bring it to student’s attention because student’s should have a voice,” Earl said. “A lot of this stuff is happening behind closed doors so student’s don’t know about it. If students know there is potential to have a lounge I think they would be very well for that rather than a swing space that either sits open or is used as offices.”
Cowan said he thought the students should have more say in how space should be allocated in the Commons because their student fees go to upkeep for the building.
“I think the space as a student lounge would directly benefit the students, that it is a space that is needed and that students should have more say in how the space in the Commons and Union building are allocated because those spaces are funded primarily by the students,” he said.
According to Assistant Director of Operations for the Idaho Commons and Union Mark Miller, student fees fund about 60 percent of upkeep for the Student Union Building, and 45 percent in the Commons.
Cowan said he thinks they can appeal the decision, though he is not sure to whom they would appeal.
“I believe that we can appeal the decision. It may be before the Space Use Committee, I’m not sure,” Cowan said. “Ultimately we feel very strongly that it should be used for a student space and we’d like to see that our proposal is fully heard.”
Johnson said he thinks they can appeal to the provost for a review of the decision, although since the provost was in on the original decision it is unlikely the decision will be changed.
Andrew Deskins can be reached at [email protected]